Daughter of the Red Butterfly
by Julie5
Summary: Tohru must find the Butterfly within herself to free her family from their curse. With the help of her frineds she can do it? KyoXTohruXYuki pairings Please read and reveiw. Rated M for ch 12
1. Chapter 1

**Ch1- Countdown to oblivion**

Tohru awoke with a yawn. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes with the back of her arm. She was exhausted. With the end of her senior year approaching, the future loomed ominously before her.

A future without the Sohma's.

For the past few weeks her sleep had become restless. She was plagued with a persistent sense of guilt and fear. Looking at the clock beside her bed she sighed; five forty-five; she scooted off the end of her carnation coverlet and into her fluffy pink slippers. Four hours ago she'd been staring, bleary-eyed, at the ceiling. Now she needed to prepare the house for the morning routines. Her alarm was set so that she would awaken early enough to not only ensure breakfast was prepared for Shigure, Kyo and Yuki, but also early enough to do some serious thinking.

She began preparing a traditional Japanese breakfast with all the precision of a mechanized automaton. Her hands flew with such artless grace an observer would have been awed. Not a single movement was wasted. However, Tohru's mind was not on the breakfast. It was on the family she had grown to love. The family she had claimed as her own- if not aloud for others to hear, then silently, in the warm sunlit places of her heart.

She'd been trying for two years to break the curse holding the Juunishi captive. For two years her attempts to unlock the secrets of the curse had come to naught. She knew with chilling certainty that at the end of the school year she would no longer be allowed to live with the Sohmas. Akito had made that quite clear. Her heart felt heavy as she slid into a chair at the table, absently sipping on the tea she had made herself.

As they often did her thoughts turned to the two males at the center of her devotion. Yuki had truly blossomed over the past couple of years. He smiled often now, that real smile that before had been so rare- and not just at her. She often found herself staring in pride at him as he graced a member of the student body government with one of those special smiles that had so long been reserved solely for her. Whenever he did her heart ached with the pleasure of it. She couldn't bear the thought of that smile locked away from the world forever; locked away to be given only to Akito, the cause of Yuki's many masks.

And what of the girls? She knew Kisa and Rin would also suffer, locked up on the Honke with Akito. For some reason Akito hated women, particularly women whom he felt got too close to the members of his Juunishi.

But most of all Tohru worried about Kyo. Her stomach did a slight flip flop and she took a deep breath to control the nausea. Her own boldness startled her even now. Just thinking of what she had done caused her to blush at her own temerity.

She had asked Kazuma to take her to see the house prepared for the Cat. She shuddered in remembrance…

"…_Shishou-san…"_

"_Tohru!" Kazuma started in surprise. He turned around, noting her serious demeanor and the pallor of her face. "This is a surprise. Won't you come inside?" He gestured into his home. She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Her hands were trembling at how forward she was being. But she was desperate._

"_I… I have come to ask a favor of Kazuma-san… that is… if he's not too busy…" She blushed then looked up at him hopefully. Kazuma studied her thoughtfully before sliding his sandals onto his feet and stepping outside._

"_I am at your service Tohru-kun."_

"_I… I need to see the cat's house." Kazuma drew back in surprise His eyes unwittingly glancing behind her, up the hill, to where the cat's house waited. _

"_Why?" He asked his voice expressionless. He was a bit surprised when her eyes filled with tears. Reaching toward her, he made to put an arm around her shoulders, and draw her close to him, but she stepped back, shaking her head. He allowed his hand to fall to his chest as she spoke to him through a voice broken and worn with fear and sorrow._

"_I need to see the place where he will go when school is over. I have done my best. I have tried to break the curse, but I just don't know what to do!" Her hands fisted at her sides as her tears fell. "I don't want to lose them Shi-shou… but I feel time slipping away faster than I can find a solution. I need to know where to find him… because… no matter what Akito says… I will not let him be locked up. I will find a way to his side!" Her last words were fierce and full of a deadly determination that Kazuma was sure was a rarely heard note in Tohru Honda's voice. The long dying flame of hope burning in his breast flickered back to tiny life. Perhaps all was not lost after all. Nodding, he beckoned her to follow him up the hill. The two walked in silence. It didn't take them long._

_The house was a small wooden building with wooden slats where windows would have gone. The plants around the house were left to grow slightly wild, red snapdragons and green ivy fought for supremacy around the front porch. Kazuma opened the door, which locked from the outside and Tohru followed him inside. The house was sturdy, but very simple. The floor was a plain dirt floor with bamboo mats laid out in several places. There was a simple cooking hearth and some wooden shelving on one side. In the back there was a sleeping space and then the only modern thing about the little hut; a recently added bathroom consisting of a simple standup shower, a flush toilet, and a sink. The worst thing about the place, Tohru decided, was the darkness. Kyo loved his daily sunbathing on the roof of Shigure's house. Without the sun he would slowly lose any hope he had until he died._

_Alone. _

_Hopeless. _

_In the dark. _

_Tohru fell to her knees in the dirt and felt her entire body shake and tremble in nauseous fear for Kyo. Her tears flowed freely from her eyes as deep sobs and small mewling sounds issued up from her chest. The panic she'd been struggling to contain seemed to well up and explode and she could do nothing to hold on to it. _

_It was her fault. _

_She hadn't been able to free him. _

_He would be locked up in this horrible place and it was all her fault! She felt Kazuma sink to his knees beside her and wrap his strong arms around her. She felt so useless! She wished she was strong, like her mother, she was eighteen, practically a woman, yet here she wept like a babe in the arms of a man she hardly knew. Nevertheless she accepted his kind embrace, thankful she was not crying alone. _

_Kazuma held the girl tightly against his chest as she cried quiet, gasping, stifled sounds that pierced the dark place. Once he would have burned the house to the ground before seeing Kyo locked up there. Then Kyo went and made that stupid wager with Akito that if he didn't beat Yuki by graduation he would allow the family head to lock him up in the cat's house. Kazuma felt little fear for the Godling Akito, but he could not fight his son Kyo's will. Kyo felt it was a matter of honor to fulfill his end of the pledge. He would pliantly go and allow himself to be locked up if he didn't beat Yuki before graduation. Kazuma felt his own tears wet the hair of the girl he held. He had hoped she would be able to free Kyo from the curse as well. But perhaps there was no way to break the curse after all…_

So now Tohru sat at the breakfast table sipping her tea trying to think of a way to save the men she loved. She loved Kyo. She loved Yuki. More than anything in the world she wanted to be with them both. She didn't quite think of what she felt for the boys in sexual terms, to do that might require her to make a choice and for her there was no choice to make. Her life without either one would simply destroy her. She accepted this as a fact and all she did was put into the singular goal of making them happy and seeing those rare, real smiles.

Tohru had similar feelings for the other members of the Juunishi, Momiji, Haru, Hatori, Kisa and even Hiro. She truly adored Ayame, Yuki's older brother and she really liked Kagura and Rin. Shigure was like an elder brother always looking out for her. She loved the Sohmas.

But Yuki and Kyo, they were special; they were hers. She didn't know when she began thinking of them, as her own but now it was as natural as breathing to her.

And Akito was going to take them from her.

Akito was going to hurt them again.

Tohru couldn't let that happen, not without a fight, though the very idea was so foreign to her nature she had to ponder over what that would mean to her. She brought the teacup to her lips and looked up as the back door slid open. It was Kyo. He had just finished his morning jog. His orange hair was wet against his head and his sun-darkened skin glistened with sweat as he pulled a water bottle from the refrigerator and began gulping it down. He watched her over the bottle as he drank and she couldn't help but smile at him. He pulled the bottle from his lips.

"What?" He grunted. She just shook her head and stood up.

"I made Kyo-kun breakfast." She smiled as she breezed past him to fetch his meal and lay it out on the table. As she passed him her soft brown hair slid over his skin, strands of soft sienna clung hungrily to his sweat before pulling loose as she walked.

Kyo watched her glide past. He doubted she had even been aware of it, but he had been. He was aware of everything about her. His cat curse heightened his senses as far as she was concerned. He could smell her as she came into the house and he knew at school when she was nearby. He knew the way the sun lit up her usually mousy brown tresses, bathing them in gold, and the way moonlight lent her skin a silver cast. When her hair touched him he felt it, every glorious nanosecond of it.

Kyo had never been held much as a child never touched just for the sake of touching. Even when he had gone to live with Shishou, he didn't often allow the man to hold him, unused to it; usually Shishou had to surprise him when he picked him up. But she was different. His body ached at the very thought that she might touch him. He lived for the times when she would slide her small hand into his. He still couldn't believe that she had accepted him- even after learning his true form. Not just pretended- she had been truly terrified- but his leaving had scared her even more. At that time, in that moment something long dead in Kyo's heart blossomed to life and he knew no matter what the future held, just knowing she was a part of the world would be enough to keep him hanging on. When did he start loving her so much?

He went upstairs to wipe down and change. He wouldn't bathe because Shigure complained at the amount of water he used, and besides, no one else was awake right now so that meant he had Tohru all to himself and didn't have to share her with that damn rat or stupid dog. A few minutes later he joined Tohru at the table and began eating the breakfast she had prepared for him.

He watched her from beneath lowered lashes as she studied her cup, seeming lost in thought. He noticed how pale her skin was and the dark circles under her eyes. Finishing his salmon steak, he placed a hand gently on her forehead. Her eyes widened and she looked to him in askance.

"Kyo…"

"Are you feeling okay?" He asked. "You don't look too well." Instead of getting flustered as she usually did whenever anyone worried over her she reached up and grabbed his hand in her own. She wrapped both of her hands around his and he was suddenly conscious of how close they were sitting together.

"I… I'm not really okay." Kyo gasped a shiver running up his spine at the thread of sorrow he heard in her voice. Tohru would never admit to anyone if anything was wrong with her. He remembered the time she had failed one of her tests in school and it took her passing out before she would admit that she wasn't fine. His entire body shifted toward her and his other hand came up to rest on her shoulder, concern registered in every line of his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked tightly, unsure if he wanted to know the answer, unable to bear the thought of not knowing.

"We will be graduating soon… Kyo-kun still hasn't beaten Yuki… I… I don't want to lose Kyo… I don't want Kyo to be locked up in that dark little house without windows. I don't want Kyo to leave me." Kyo gasped, his hand dropping from her shoulder as if she had burned him. He tried to pull away from her, but her hands, so comforting a moment ago, now cloying, refused to let his go. He looked away, his face flushing hot.

"How… How did you know?" He choked out.

"It doesn't matter," she whispered, her voice barely a breath, "I just know. Are you going to do it? Are you going to allow them to lock you away like you were some kind of…" and here she choked as if she had trouble saying the word, "a monster?!" Kyo couldn't look her in the eyes.

"Yes." He snapped, studying the hand so fervently grasping his own. "Yes I am. I gave my word. A man doesn't just say he will do something and then not do it."

"You could run away with me!" Kyo looked up startled at the strength in her voice. "I was accepted to Tokyo college thanks to Yuki's tutoring. We could go together. If you don't like Tokyo we could go somewhere else. You would not ever have to worry about Akito or the curse again."

"It's not that simple Tohru. Akito… he is the God of the Zodiac. I made him a promise. What kind of a man would I be if I broke it?"

"But Akito doesn't care about you! I do!" Kyo looked into her bright blue eyes. His heart, along with his cheeks, warmed at her words. No one but Shishou had ever cared about him before this girl. How could he ever let her go? He sighed, gently disentangling his hand from hers he stood..

"I can't run away. I made a promise to Akito and I intend to keep it. Besides," he glanced from beneath lowered lashes into Tohru's saddened face, "I never want to be the kind of man you could be ashamed of. When you think of me in the future, I want you to remember me with pride. I want to be that kind of man. The kind you can be proud of."

Tohru felt as if her heart would explode with her feelings. Instead she put her hands together in front of her as if in a prayer and said to him, "You already are Kyo-kun."

Yawning hugely, Shigure entered the kitchen. "Ahhh, my little flower, what have you made for breakfast to-" he paused noticing how flustered Tohru looked and the blush staining Kyo's cheeks. "Uh-oh, did I interrupt something?" Shigure asked playfully before leaping to Kyo's side and nudging him with his fan "Was Kyon-Kyon saying something naughty to our little Tohru? Hmmmm?" Kyo leapt to his feet.

"You know what Shigure, sometimes you really piss me off! I'm goin' to school!" With a huff Kyo ran upstairs to get his things and rushed out the door.

"What? What'd I do?" Shigure inquired innocently. Tohru smiled at him and went to get his breakfast. She brought him his newspaper and his coffee as well. As he flipped open the newspaper Tohru's breath caught. Soon all this would be over. Soon High School would be completed and Shigure, along with the others, would return to the Honke with Akito. The gates would be closed and she would not be allowed to bring Shigure his morning paper and coffee again. The sunlight poured in through the window, illuminating Shigure's strong profile. Shigure, suddenly aware that Tohru had not moved away, glanced up and his breath caught at the look of love? Longing? Wistfulness- He saw on her face.

"Tohru…" She smiled brightly at him. He was about to put down his paper but she placed a finger to her lips shaking her head no. What was she- he was quite suddenly shocked to his toes when Tohru, his timid little Tohru, leaned forward to lay her cheek on the top of his hair. His eyes widened as big as saucers as she gently stroked the hair on the back of his neck. After resting there briefly she knelt down beside him. Her eyes met his and he swallowed convulsively as she took his hands in hers. He allowed her to tug the newspaper from him and wrap her tiny, delicate hands around his much larger ones.

"I am so grateful, Shigure-san, so grateful that you have given me a home with you for all these years. I am so thankful that Shigure-san made me a part of his family. After mom died, I was all alone. I knew Grandpa loved me, but half the time he thought I was my mother and the other half he was always so worried. None of the rest of the family wanted me because of mom's history. I told myself it didn't matter, but it did. Here," and she took one hand and rested it on her heart, "here it did matter. Inside of me I was so scared. I didn't want to be alone. Shigure-San, you took away my aloneness! You, and Yuki, and Kyo, and the others, you gave me more than a home, more than friendship, you gave me a family. Shigure-san, I don't know what the future will bring, but I want you to know what you did for me. I will always be grateful to you, and so… I thank you." And she bowed her head clutching one of his hands to her heart as she hid the tears that had burst free on their own. Shigure looked down at the head bent over his arm and a strange little curl unfolded in his chest, his hand twitched and he was shocked to realize his own eyes had welled up. He placed a hand lovingly on her hair.

"Tohru, little flower, the honor has always been mine." He looked up to see Yuki slouched against the wall, a tormented look on his face as he gazed at the girl on the floor. "Come come little flower, your prince has arrived and he looks ready to eat." Yuki straightened up quickly, a mask of calm sliding over his features as Tohru looked up.

"G-Good morning, Sohma-kun."

"Good morning Honda-san." He greeted. Tohru bustled into the kitchen wondering how much of her confession Yuki had just witnessed. He must think her very foolish.

That day as Yuki and Tohru walked to school together Yuki kept glancing at Tohru. Her face was flushed but the rest of her skin was pale. He pondered over what he had heard her saying to Shigure that morning. It had to be graduation, he decided. She had to be worried about going to college and no longer living with them. Yuki tried to ignore the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach at the unpalatable thought, pushing it aside.

"You'll be fine you know." The words were out before he could stop them.

"Eh?" Tohru questioned looking over at him.

"After graduation, when you go to college. You won't have to take care of us anymore so you can focus more on your studies." She didn't respond. Yuki looked over at her, trying to assess her mood. He gasped. His words seemed to light a fire in her eyes and she turned to look at him, effectively stopping their walk.

"I never would have made it into college without your help Yuki-kun. When I went to high school it was just to keep a promise to my mom. But now I have a chance for a real future, thanks to you. But I don't want it if it means I have to give up you, and Kyo, and Momiji, and the rest."

"Honda-san…"

"Is Sohma-kun returning to the honke to be with Akito after High School?" Yuki bowed his head.

"Akito has made his desires very clear." There was a wealth of bitterness in Yuki's voice. "He is calling for all the Juunishi after graduation."

"But you don't want to go… do you Sohma-kun?" He looked down at her face so fervent, looking up at him so expectantly.

"It… it's not like that. I can't disobey Akito, no matter what I want." Tohru was abruptly frustrated.

"And Kyo?" She asked softly, turning her attention to Yuki's white shoes. "Will you allow Akito to lock him up all alone in the cat house?" Her soft voice took on an unfamiliar edge. "Will you leave him there? Alone? For the rest of his life?" Tohru raised her gaze, lightning in her eyes. Yuki was agog, his mouth dropped slightly open. He'd never seen Tohru so upset. She was actually angry.

She was stunning.

"Well!" She demanded when he failed to answer right away.

"I can't stop it." He began slowly, as if measuring his words, "Akito…"

"Shut Up!" Tohru shouted, her chest heaving as she dropped her books and covered her ears. Yuki was struck speechless by her uncharacteristic outburst. "Akito! Akito! Akito! All the Juunishi always want to blame Akito, but you can't Yuki! There comes a time when blame ends and personal responsibility begins. If Akito locks Kyo up in that dark house you can't stop him, I know that! But you can go see him. You can talk to him. You can sometimes eat your meals with him, and maybe, just maybe, you can unlock his door one day so he can feel the sun on his skin. Akito can lock him up, but only you can decide if you will leave him there! I know you're better than Akito Yuki, I know it!" Before she burst into tears again Tohru blindly turned and ran toward the school.

Yuki fell to his knees watching her run. Her words echoing in his mind _I know you're better than Akito, Yuki, I know it!_ But was he? What did she expect him to do? Yuki was abruptly angry. He was angry at Akito, angry at the situation, but most of all angry at himself for not being the man Tohru expected him to be.

A girl in black, bent over a water fountain, froze mid-drink, her long cascade of midnight tresses froze with her. She stood slowly and turned. Hanajima felt her before she saw her and what she felt made her shiver. She took a step forward struggling to find her voice. Arisa, ever alert, noted her friend's sudden pallor and abruptly began scanning back the way they had come.

"Tohru!" Hana gasped. There was a strange tone in her voice putting Arisa further on edge. Arisa pulled out her lead pipe, brandishing it like a sword, following swiftly on the running heels of her goth-garbed friend. Arisa Uotani knew if something were wrong with Tohru, Hana would know. Hana was connected to Tohru in a way Arisa couldn't explain. She suspected it had to do with the depth of love the girl felt for Tohru. Hana had told Arisa snippets about her life PT- pre Tohru. It was a dark and lonely existence full of guilt and despair. Tohru was more than a friend to Hana. She was Hana's highest reverence.

Arisa saw Tohru running blindly, uncaring of who she shoved aside, which was very uncharacteristic of her. She had her arms out and face down and was pounding down the sidewalk as if demons were chasing after her. Hanajima ran directly into Tohru, flinging her arms around the distraught girl. Arisa's eyes darted in all directions, searching for the source of Tohru's distress. She was completely unaware of the threatening picture she presented as she towered over the two girls huddled on the ground, her pipe resting lightly behind her neck as she scanned the crowded courtyard for threats.

"Are you ready to tell us Tohru?" Hana asked. Arisa looked down curiously. Tell them what?

"I… I don't know w-w-what you mean." She sniffled.

"Your waves have been holding tight to secrets since you moved in with the Sohma's. Lately the waves have been erratic, strangling your chi, you need to trust us Tohru." Hana took Tohru's face in her hands and tilted her head so that Tohru was looking into her still, silver eyes. "Trust us. We will help you."

"You know I've got your back, whatever it is, danger won't get a glance at you." Arisa's voice was low and menacing seething with visceral certainty. She meant it. No one would harm Tohru. Tohru looked into Hanajima's eyes and felt her resolve weakening. Inhaling a shuddering breath she nodded slightly.

"We can't go to class today." Hana and Arisa exchanged looks. Tohru would never miss school unless there was something seriously wrong.

"We'll go to my place." Arisa stated. "Its not far and dad's at work anyway."

Twenty minutes later they were gathered around the kitchen table in the two-room shack Arisa shared with her father. The living space, kitchen and dining area were all combined into one space, there was a bedroom where Arisa slept, and a small bathroom in the back. Her father usually camped out on the old lumpy sofa in the living area. Tohru sat stiffly in her chair her shoulders tense, her chin trembling. Arisa and Hana waited patiently until she was ready to talk. She began, haltingly, at first.

"In three months we will be graduating. I am supposed to stay in a dorm in Tokyo and attend college there. Yuki and Kyo and Shigure and the rest of the Sohmas will return to the main house of the Sohma family." Her voice broke; it took her a couple seconds to regain it, when she spoke again it sounded as though she were speaking through shards of broken glass. "I will never see them again." Hana and Uo both put an arm on Tohru's shoulder.

"Why would they do that to you?" Arisa demanded, outraged, "those assholes, you want me to kick their asses?" Tohru had spent the better part of High school taming Orange top and pulling the stick out of the prince's ass, not to mention making their house into a home and now they wanted to simply throw her away. She would not quickly forgive them!

"No. Don't hurt them." Tohru pleaded, distress clearly in her posture and voice, "I haven't told you everything. I can't tell you the real secret, but I can tell you that Kyo-kun will be locked away and never see the sun again. Yuki will be put somewhere just as dark. Their smiles will disappear and their hope will die and I… I don't want to be in a world without them." Hana pulled back, her eyes meeting Arisa's. In their silvery depths Arisa read darkness there she hadn't known the girl possessed. There was a low hum in the room. Arisa felt the hair on her arms stand on end. Suddenly there was a loud pop. Arisa and Tohru jumped in surprise. A bulb in the table lamp had exploded. Hanajima stroked Tohru's hair gently and the humming in the air slowly dimmed.

"Then we shall see that such a world never comes to pass." Tohru leaned into Hanajima's soothing caress. That's not all." She whispered. "Hatori…the day of graduation, you can't let him get me alone."

"Why?" Arisa demanded. "Hatori, that's the doctor in the Sohma family right?' Tohru nodded.

"Normally they would never do anything to hurt me but… on that day… I think Hatori might be forced to… take something from me." She turned tormented eyes to her two friends. "I'm so stupid. I've tried to help others. I tried to help my friends. They are about to be forced to a place that I cannot follow." She began sobbing in earnest, "It is because I was not strong enough. I couldn't fight for them like I wanted. I just wanted to see them smile. I wanted to help them… like they helped me. I… I… I wanted us to stay together always. But…I'm too weak. Mom wouldn't have given up. She would have fought harder. I never had to fight for anything. I just had to be myself. It was enough that they loved me, and I loved them. But that's going to end and I know… Akito will never let me keep… what's mine." She finished lamely.

"We will not allow them to harm our Tohru." Hanajima stated firmly.

"What do you want us to do." Arisa asked determinedly

"I… I can't go to college." Tohru whispered softly. Hanajima and Arisa's eyes widened at this, their mouths gaping slightly. Tohru clenched her fists at her side. "Akito would find me. He would bring Hatori… they would take what is mine. I have to go somewhere they would never expect me to go."

"Should we leave before graduation?" Arisa asked. Now that the decision had been made she could focus on what needed to be done. They would need supplies, some traveling packs, cash, a car if possible, food that would last a while, a first aid kit and some minor weapons.

"No." Hana said in her eerily calm voice. "Tohru promised to graduate. Her quest is not yet done. But on that day a new quest will begin. The quest to free the butterfly inside her and free the Sohma's from their prison." Tohru looked at Uo-chan and Hana-chan. They were already making plans to throw away their own goals and dreams just to help her with hers.

"I can't let you guys do this. Not for me. You guys have your own lives, Hana-chan, you were going to go to America for the summer and Uo-chan, there's your job. I can't ask you two to give up your dreams for the future just for me. It wouldn't be right!"

"Hey!" Arisa snapped, slamming her fist into the table. "Do you think I care about waiting tables at some damn restaurant when my friend needs my help? No way! My future has always been at your side. Ever since that first time when you and your mom called me Uo-chan. You guys gave me something I never knew I needed. You were my family. A family sticks together and helps each other through the hard times. There's no way I'd let you take off alone. Besides," she lifted her chin and brought up her lead pipe slapping it into her hand with practiced precision, "you said you wanted to be strong didn't you? Well I can teach you to fight. Then no one will mess with us, not even this Akito person!"

"And my dreams have always been about you, Tohru." Hanajima intoned calmly. "America can wait. You were the answer to my prayers back then. I was all alone in the dark. Then you came and pulled me out to the sun again. You taught me how to smile and I found my way to life again because of you. You said you cannot bear to be in a world where Yuki and Kyo do not exist, but I cannot bear to be in a world where my Tohru is not happy and smiling. If Kyo is going to be put into the dark, then I know you are the one who can bring him back to the light."

"Uo-chan, Hana-chan… Tohru's eyes shimmered with gratitude through her tears. "Thank you both. I am so lucky to have such good friends. Please, help me to become strong so I can save Yuki and Kyo."

The three made a plan. Hanajima would get some money from her family, her little brother Megume would help. Arisa would look for a car. They would go to Hanajima's grandmother's hometown of Hume. It was a small coastal village near the southern tip of Japan. It was very old world, but none of the Sohma's would know of Tohru's connection to it. Arisa would just let her father know they were leaving; he'd never cared too much one way or the other. They would leave two days after graduation the weekend before the summer break began. It made Tohru's heart break at the thought of leaving Kyo and Yuki, but there was still a chance they might change their minds and come with her. With their plans laid, Uo-chan headed out to her job and Hana-chan headed home.

Tohru walked quietly back to the house she shared with the Sohma's. She didn't have work today so she could relax at home and study a little. Yuki was waiting on her in the doorway, concern painting a mask of worry on his face.

"Honda-san, are you alright?" Tohru smiled, the first real smile she'd had all day.

"I'm okay Sohma-kun. Sohma-kun is so kind to worry about me." Yuki eyed her suspiciously, albeit somewhat relieved at the genuine smile she gave him.

"I was worried about you. I missed you at school today. After our conversation this morning…" He let the sentence trail off, unsure of what to say. Tohru laid a gentle hand on Yuki's arm. He looked into her forgiving smile, almost drowning in the caring he saw reflected in her eyes.

"Yuki-kun is kind. He is scared about the future. I had no right to become angry. You always try your best. I just want Yuki-kun to know how very much he means to me… how much I will miss him when I can no longer prepare his meals and talk with him." Yuki felt a warm flush steal over his face.

"You have made me into a better person, Honda-San. I will be able to bear being locked up because I will remember our days at the secret base, our moments together in this house, and the rare beauty of your smile. Your kindness has saved me Honda San."

"Then Yuki must not forget to smile when he is at the main house." Tohru whispered fervently. "You will not be alone there. I know you find your brother exhausting but he loves you Yuki-kun. And the rest of the Sohma's, Haru-san, Hatori-sama and Momiji-kun, they are your family. Do not deny them your real face. Show them your real smiles too and I will be happy." Yuki looked down at her. She was so serious, so earnest. Why did she care so much about his smiles? How did she know what he was most afraid of was being locked up and never having any reason for smiling again. He smiled right then, for her. She smiled back, one of her gentle and beautiful smiles that reminded him of pictures of angels he'd seen in paintings.

"There it is," she sighed, "that is the smile Yuki must never forget. That is the face I know Ayame would love to see." He stared bemused as she lowered her eyes and went into the house.

Inside she began a load of laundry before going upstairs. She thought of checking Kyo's room for him but she just _knew_ he would be up on the roof sunbathing. As she climbed the ladder to the rooftop she smiled when she saw him lying there.

"Mind if I join you?" She asked softly.

"If you want to." Was his noncommittal reply. Needing no further urging she moved to his side. He was lying on his back, a white tee shirt hung off his lean frame and loose black track shorts clung to his thighs. He sat with his knees up, eyes closed as the sun bathed his skin in warm golden rays. Suddenly she had the strongest desire to touch him.

She looked down at her knees, flushing at the thought. Yet- soon there would be no more chances. Her hand began itching to feel him; his hair, his skin, just some solid piece of him beneath her palm. She looked at him again, he was breathing deeply, utterly relaxed. He looked so young, so boyish, so free. His normally angry eyes were smooth in sleepy repose. She slowly scooted herself higher on the roof so that she was slightly above him. Tentatively she lowered herself to her side, supporting her head with her arm resting its weight on her elbow.

She reached out with her free hand and with one finger gently stroked the hair resting on his forehead. She remembered when she was young her mother used to smooth her hair back when she was trying to rest. It had always been so relaxing. She waited to see if he would object, when he didn't she continued her tender ministrations. His orange hair was soft and silky, slightly damp at the roots from perspiration. His scent was very appealing and Tohru lowered her head to the side of her arm not only to relax more, but also to inhale the heady male fragrance of him. She felt an uncurling warmth in her lower stomach stretch lethargically, reaching warm ribbons of soft, itching, heat into her chest. Her skin felt strangely sensitive. She smiled. She loved being close to him like this. Instead of just one finger she slid her entire hand into his tangerine mane. It sprang up beneath her hand and she giggled softly. Looking to his face she caught him staring at her, a strange look in his eyes. Her breath caught and her hand stilled, but she did not remove it from his hair, they clenched reflexively due to her sudden nervousness.

"What are you doing?" He asked softly.

"I'm sorry. Mother used to do this for me. I couldn't help it. I just wanted to… feel you. Do you want me to stop?" She queried uncertain, her face a mask of contrition. Kyo pretended to yawn, though in truth her touch was sending his male hormones into overdrive.

"No, you can keep it up if you like, it makes no difference to me." He would burn in hell for that lie, he knew. His entire body hummed with pleasure as she ran her fingers through his hair. He was pretty sure if she knew just how much he really did enjoy what she was doing she would turn several shades of red and immediately flee the rooftop in terror.

He never reacted this way to any other female. All the girls at school, they were nothing to him. He had eyes for just one girl. The girl who lay next to him, drowsily stroking his head as if he were the cat he transformed into. He allowed his eyes to drift shut again. He blinked again only when her hand stilled its gentle petting. When he saw that she had simply fallen asleep with her hand entwined in his hair, he smiled. He moved his face closer to her body to inhale the smell of her. She was beautiful in every way, and for this moment only she belonged to him alone. For just a few minutes he could pretend…

If anyone had seen the naked longing, the desperate hunger, the shadowed despair, and total devotion that painted his face right then they would have fallen to their knees and wept at the power of his feelings. But no one did see. They never would. It was a moment in time that belonged only to the two of them. Kyo closed his eyes and he too fell into a contented sleep, breathing in her scent as he did so. Had it been possible in his human form, he would have been purring.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 What is love?**

Tohru spent the next three months trying desperately to be cheerful. She went with Yuki to the secret base as often as they could. She spent many evenings on the rooftop with Kyo. She tried to make them all feel how much she cared. Momiji and and Hatsuharu were often at the little house they all shared with Shigure, also basking in the tender warmth Tohru gave to them all.

"Tohru, I love you so much" Momiji declared in a burst of boyish adoration one evening as they lounged on the porch, eating Popsicles and watching the sunset. Tohru reached one arm up for him and that was all the invite Momiji needed to crawl into her lap. He kept himself forward so he would not transform. He was rather large for her lap. Tohru didn't care though, even though she knew he was only a year younger than her, even if he had grown a lot in the past couple of years and was almost as tall as she was, she just couldn't see him as anything more than the precious child who had bravely held his tears inside as he watched the mother who didn't want him, and would never know him walk away with the father who neglected him and the sister he longed to embrace. Her heart ached for Momiji.

"Momiji-kun, I love you too. I will always love you. You must know that." Momiji noted the seriousness of Tohru's words and he looked into her face. It was smiling but a soft blanket of melancholy had fallen over her. "I will love Momiji-kun when high walls stand between us, and I will love him even when a god denies us each others company, I will love Momiji-Kun. One day I will be strong. One day I will be strong enough to stand against the wrath of a god!" Her voice was determined. Momiji felt his heart rise and his stomach did a little flip as it recognized the promise in Tohru's words. "When I am strong, I will return. I will fight to regain the family that is being taken from me. I will see Momiji-kun's happy smiling face again. I will hear Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun argue again; I will laugh at Shigure's jokes and marvel at the energy of Kagura and Ayame. I will make dinner for Hatori and Kisa. I will hear Hiro correcting me and make gelatin for Rin and see Haru go black again. When those gates close and I am left on the outside you will not be forgotten by me Momiji-kun. You will not be forgotten because I know a secret."

Momiji swallowed the lump in his throat. Haru and Yuki were standing behind Tohru. Haru had his arm on Yuki's shoulder and Yuki looked as if a truck had hit him as he listened to Tohru's monologue.

"Oooh, I love secrets, can you tell me Tohru mutti? Please tell me." Tohru smiled, stroking the back of her hand lightly down his face on his cheek.

"Love is forever, Momiji-Kun. It is never for only a little while. And Love will find a way. Somehow, even when the flesh is weak, even when hope is frail and all seems lost, love remains. It is constant and it is precious, but in the hearts of those who know it, it is strength incarnate. It is through love that the will is made strong and through love that the impossible becomes the probable."

"And Tohru mutti has this love for Momiji? This love that will not forget and will find a way."

"Yes." She answered simply then she pulled him close to her. PYONG. He transformed into a small yellow rabbit. She held him close to her heart unaware of the two boys standing behind her and the shaken hope she had given them both.

Yuki, Kyo and Hatsuharu stood out on the porch long after Tohru had gone up to bed.

"You know she's saying her goodbyes to us." Yuki commented to no one in particular. Kyo nodded glumly. Haru looked troubled.

"But do you think she really means to fight Akito." Both Yuki and Kyo looked sick at the very idea.

"Akito would kill her if she tried." Kyo whispered sharply.

"It doesn't mean she won't though. Try, I mean."

"What does she mean, when I get stronger? That talk worries me." Yuki bit his lower lip as he tried to understand it.

"Well, regardless, her little speech to Momiji was a beautiful thing. Even if it may prove false, her heart at least will not be what falters, just her mind." Both Yuki and Kyo looked up at Haru's words.

"What are you talking about Haru-san?" Yuki asked. Haru looked up, his eyes meeting Yuki's.

"Do you really think Tohru will be allowed to leave the family's influence knowing our secret? Use your head. Hatori will be called on to do his Jedi mind trick thingie and poof; everything Tohru remembers about us all will be gone. She'll continue on in life unplagued with concerns of "the family that was taken from her."

"And would that really be so bad?" Kyo whispered softly. "At least then she won't suffer." Yuki bowed his head. Wordlessly the three drifted off to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 War Prayer **

It was the day of graduation. Tohru was a nervous wreck. As she and Yuki and Kyo headed out of the house Shigure took her by the arms.

"Remember Tohru-kun, this is your day. This is the day you fulfill your promise to your mother. It should be a joyous occasion, not one fraught with worry. We can worry together tomorrow. For today be happy. You've earned this happiness little flower." He then patted her on the head and waved her on her way. As the three of them walked to school together Tohru knew this was her last chance to ask them to run away with her again. They had already both turned her down several times individually. She didn't have any time left to be afraid. Taking a deep breath she took both of their hands in hers as they walked along.

"I am so happy to be graduating, yet I wish this day had not come so quickly." Kyo and Yuki were both too busy delighting in holding her hand to notice her walk had slowed to practically a stand still. "Will you two please come away with me? Tonight, the three of us can just leave." It took the two boys a minute to register what she had said. When they did they looked her in the eyes. She was desperately hoping they would agree with her this time. Yuki dropped her hand and just shook his head.

"Dummy." Kyo said. "I already told you I couldn't. You know the reason why." Unlike that damn rat however, he held Tohru's hand in his, refusing to relinquish a second offered to him when he could touch her.

"Kyo, I won't leave you locked up in that place."

"Little idiot, Akito will never allow you in, the choice won't be yours." Though his words were harsh his voice was gentle.

"Akito can't stop me forever." Yuki watched Tohru's chin lift to a determined angle, worry blossoming in his heart.

"Honda-san must not cause Akito-sama to be angry with her." The very thought made him green. It evidently upset Kyo as well.

"Tohru, if you don't respect Akito's wishes and stay away from the compound he could have Hatori erase your memories." Tohru's eyes flashed blue fire and her nostrils flared. Kyo was transfixed. Tohru had been living with him at Shigure's house for four years and he had yet to see her angry. Yet here she was working herself into a fine rage. She was stunning. He noted that that damn Yuki was staring at her, similarly transfixed.

"Understand this, both of you, I will never allow Hatori to take what's mine! In the beginning, I just wanted what was best for the Sohma family. If that meant erasing my memories, that was okay. But since memories are all I am to be left with I will not relinquish them. Ever. Not to anyone for any reason. Hatori has no right to enter my mind and if he tries he will find a not so compliant Tohru on the other end of his stare!" Unaware that she had grabbed Yuki's hand and was squeezing both boys arms beneath hers she marched ahead in a rage. Yuki and Kyo were a bit shocked at Tohru's passion but had no time to comment.

"Ahh, such pleasant vibes. Yuki, Kyo, are not Tohru's vibes very pleasant this morning. Her strength is startling, is it not?" Hanajima was walking toward them her voice falling hollowly into the silence between them.

"Yo, what's up with you guys, you should be really excited, today's the day we all graduate!" Arisa's deep voice was irritated at what she felt was the boys failing in not arriving to school with a smiling Tohru. It was the last time either of the boys were able to be alone with Tohru for the rest of the day. Anytime they tried to be with her either Hana, Uo, or the two of them were at her side. That day the senior class was staying after school for graduation ceremonies. The entire Sohma clan with the exception of Kureno and Akito had arrived to show support for Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru. Tohru wept as she accepted her diploma. Ayame immediately swept her up in his arms as she stepped off the stage, proclaiming her the epitome of womanhood, ripe for the fantastic and romantic adventure of adulthood.

"And if my darling little brother had not already stolen your heart my dear Tohru, I Ayame Sohma, would sweep you into the night and shower you with the enchantment of my love!" Tohru blushed, but laughed, Ayame's good humor contagious.

Shigure kissed her softly on her cheek. "Our little flower has blossomed into the most beautiful white rose." Hatori took her hands in his, a small half smile crooked his lips as he gazed on her in approval, unaware of the rapidly approaching Hana and Uo who had broken ranks with the senior class the second Hatori had touched Tohru. Electricity caressed Hana's onyx tresses lightly as she glided close to Tohru, Uotani's eyes held a menacing look of bloodlust as her right hand dove into her gown to grasp her metal pipe.

"Tohru, I have never been more proud of anyone in my life. You finished high school, just as you always said you would, you managed to hold not just a part time job but the full time job of caring for our family as well as doing well enough in your studies to get accepted to college." Tohru blushed lightly as Hana and Uo took up protective ranks, flanking her on either side. Hatori drew back slightly as the two girls pulled Tohru away before she could even finish her muttered thank you.

"Tohru mutti! Momiji shouted as he ran up to her. "Here is a present for you. Your mutti would be so proud of you Tohru!" Tohru reached down gently to take the package from Momiji, her eyes straying up to Hatsuharu who stood behind Momiji smiling gently at her. She felt her heart do a little flip flop. He was almost as devastating as Yuki was when he smiled like that.

"Th-th-thank you, Momiji-kun." She unwrapped the small gift and almost burst into tears. It was a picture taken at the lake house. A picture of Tohru in between Kyo and Yuki, an exuberant Momiji winking at the camera standing in front of her. They all looked so happy, but what took her breath away was the tender way Yuki and Kyo were both smiling at her. Kyo had his a finger wrapped around a strand of her hair and Yuki had a hand wrapped around one of her own. She was smiling. She remembered how happy they had been that day.

"Momiji-kun, it's the best gift ever, thank you so much!"

"Yay! Tohru liked my gift Haru, you were right it was a good idea." As Momiji laughed Tohru made eye contact with Hatsuharu and she mouthed a thank you to him . He smiled and turned, returning to the family. They were still waiting for the Sohma name to be called. Yuki and Kyo had yet to walk across the stage.

"Are you alright Tohru?" Arisa asked her softly. "When we saw the doctor approach you we came as fast as we could." Tohru nodded.

"I'm fine, thank you guys for looking out for me."

"They still won't come with you, will they?" Hanajima said softly. It was more of a statement than a question but Tohru answered anyway.

"No. Their bond is too strong. I cannot break it. I must become stronger." Hanajima and Arisa exchanged a look above her head. They knew Tohru had not told them the full truth. This was the first they had heard of a bond. They each nodded slightly to the other, making a mental note of the slip. Although they both respected Tohru's right to keep her secrets, they knew too, she sometimes kept to herself things she should be telling others. She put too much of the blame on herself and that wasn't healthy for her. Tohru returned to her seat at the front if the stage where everyone was sitting after receiving their diplomas and Hana and Uo got back in line.

When the ceremonies were concluded there was a huge reception held in the courtyard. Yuki's fanclub was there trying desperately to get his attention. The Sohma's were spread out. Ayame and Hatori were speaking with Yuki, Haru and Momiji were teasing Kyo about something and he looked like he was getting upset. Hana-chan and Uo-chan stayed by Tohru through the whole thing.

It was late and the crowd had thinned significantly. Megume was congratulating Hanajima when he slipped on someones discarded cap. Uo-chan was at his arm and she leaned over casually to help him up when it happened.

"Tohru!" Momiji shouted exuberantly. He leapt from the floor and up into her arms. Tohru's eyes widened in shock. She had a choice, miss him and let him fall, or hug him and allow him to transform, one thing was for certain there was no way to avoid his embrace without risking him hurt.

Hatsuharu and Yuki saw her problem a second too late, they ran toward her but were just not quick enough. It was Shigure who saved them. He had been trying to get Tohru away from her friends for the last half hour, but it was as if they had blockaded Tohru from being alone with any of the Sohma's. He almost believed it was deliberate, but subterfuge was so beyond the realm of what he expected from Tohru that he put it from his mind. His arm shot out as Tohru embraced Momiji. PYON! He changed from a beautiful young man into a small yellow bunny. Shigure half scooped her up half pushed her into the hallway near a fire exit.

"Quickly, Tohru-kun! Tori has a car waiting we have to get Momiji in it before someone notices he has disappeared." Shigure intoned urgently, smoothly guiding her to the Limo Hatori had waiting for them.

"Hai!" Tohru stated determinedly, completely unaware of the danger she was allowing herself to be caught in. Her first priority was to protect the Sohma family secret. She slid into the car quickly. Shigure slid in as well sitting in the seat opposite her. Yuki followed in behind her as Kyo entered from the other side. She was effectively sandwiched between the two boys she loved more than anything in the world, Momiji, still in his bunny form snuggling up to her. Hatsuharu was sitting across from her next to Shigure. Ayame and Hatori were in the front. Hatori put the limo in gear and Tohru realized the Sohma's had quite smoothly separated her from her friends. Her eyes slowly lifted from the bunny to meet Shigure's. His gaze was unreadable; he had a blank smile on his face. She looked to Hatsuharu who refused to look at her.

Tohru was not the smartest person. Nor could she be said to be possessed of an especially quick wit. Her strengths were emotional, intuitive leaps of emotion meeting logic. That was her specialty. She suddenly had one of those leaps. She wasn't going to be given the two days she desperately needed to say goodbye to the Sohma's, they were going to do it tonight. She inhaled sharply. Looking down she saw the tears falling from the bunny's eyes as he clung tightly to her arm.

"Momiji-kun…" she breathed, a sharp pain twisting in her heart. Once again he would be abandoned and forgotten, and after she promised him he wouldn't be. She squeezed him close to her. Hatsuharu held out his arms.

"Let me take him." Wordlessly she handed the small bunny over. She glanced first to her left at Yuki, his face a blank mask, then to the right at Kyo who was studying her hair intently. These were her last moments with them. _Oh, mom! _ She thought, _please get Uo-chan and Hana-chan here quickly! Help me to be strong until they arrive. I don't want to lose my memories. I don't want to forget Yuki and Kyo. I don't want to lose all my precious memories of Momiji-kun…_

She felt a hand slide through her hair. She looked up to see Yuki smile softly at her. She reached up and grabbed his hand pulling it to her heart.

"Yuki-kun…"

"Honda-san… we will be watching you… we will make sure that you are… taken care of." His voice barely choked out the last and he fell silent before he disgraced himself by crying in front of her. Tohru, felt the fluttering of panicked wings inside her chest, but she tried to maintain her calm. She had never wished so desperately to hug him before as she did now. She knew he needed it almost as much as she did. Intuitively she reached for his neck, somehow she knew, in these, last moments, he would not resist her. She pulled his head to her chest and he rested there, his trembling hands coming up as if to grab her before limply falling to his sides.

She turned her head to Kyo who sat stoically silent on her right.

"Kyo-kun…"

"You really do… work too hard… trying to take care of other people. You should take better care of yourself. Its alright to complain once in a while." She reached for him, her hand caressing his cheek pulling him down to her face she had him rest his head against her own. She could feel his breath on her cheek. She closed her eyes. And prayed.

_Mother, I have always been so lucky. When I was alone, the Sohma's found me. For four years they have stood with me and helped me keep my promise to you. I know you would be so proud of me for graduating and you would be even more excited that I had gotten into college. But I know that if you were here you would fight for them. You would never let them lock Kyo up in the dark. You would fight to keep Yuki and Momiji free, and sheltered in your love. You would do your best to banish the darkness in Hatori, and bridge the gap between Yuki and Ayame. You would fight Akito with all the fury of the Red Butterfly and all the love you so freely gave to me and you would protect Kisa and Rin and Hiro from her anger. But Mom, I am not as strong as you were. Help me protect them mom. Help me become strong for them. And please mom, help me find a way to stop Hatori from taking my memories. I would rather be dead than be without them. Grant me strength this day.. please make there be a little bit of butterfly in me... Make me strong… for them!_

The ride was over far too soon. Tohru and her boys were the last out of the car. Kyo and Yuki both wanted to spend as long as they could holding Tohru before she forgot about them. But when the moment could not be put off any longer they slowly disentangled themselves from her. Kyo's eyes met hers. She smiled at him

"It's going to be ok, Kyo, I will fight to keep what is mine."

Kyo looked away half hoping she would win. She turned to Yuki as Kyo climbed out. He looked into her amazingly expressive eyes. He saw fire and sorrow. He saw fear but he also saw strength.

"I will come back for you both. Trust in me." He nodded half-heartedly, unsure what she meant. He held onto her hand as he exited until he could no longer do so without pulling her behind him.

Tohru finally stepped out of the limo. Hatori and Shigure stood beside Kyo. He wouldn't look back at her. She stiffened her spine Hatsuharu and Momiji were next to Yuki and Ayame stood uncharacteristically silent behind his brother. Her eyes turned to the house and a tall slender shadow disengaged itself from one of the pillars holding up the porch.

"Hello. Tohru Honda." The voice was low and even, modulated to be calm. Tohru knew all too well how quickly that calm could evaporate. She froze. Akito stepped towards her with small, even steps. She was dressed as a man again. Her suit was all black she even carried a reed thin black cane.

"Hello, Akito-sama." She bowed low. When she rose up she found herself unnervingly close to Akito. Akito smirked into her startled eyes.

"Do you remember? The promise I made you at the lakehouse?" Akito's hawk-like gaze would not allow her to look away. She nodded dumbly. "The day is here. I am closing up Gure's house. I am taking back what's mine." Her smile slipped and a vicious light flared in her dark eyes. "We will lock the gates. The cat will be separated from us, and you- little Tohru… you will not remember a thing." Akito smiled at her gasp of pain. Tohru straightened abruptly, her feet braced slightly apart. Her hands fisted at her side.

"No."

There was an audible gasp from the assembled spectators. Tohru seldom went against the wishes of others. And she knew well the cost of standing against the will of Akito's. She'd experienced it firsthand when, in a rage, Akito had split her cheek open. But she stood there, this lone girl, so small, so timid, standing against the wrath of a god-ling grown men would not stand against.

"You have no right to take my memories. I have always kept the secrets of the Sohma family. I never told anyone any of it. Now you have come to take your family- the family I love as much as you Akito! And all I will have left is the memories… and so… I do not wish to forget… You cannot have them!" Her shaking voice strengthened on an endnote of defiance.

Akito's eyes widened at her outburst. She smiled and then started to laugh. "You love them… like I do—oh that's rich, hahahaha! You do not wish it. Oh my! A hahahahaha!" Tohru stepped back unnerved at the maniacal note that had entered Akito's laughter.

"You could not possibly love them like I do, I am their God!"

"But you will lock Kyo-kun up in a dark place and you will stop Yuki's smiles and you will hurt Kisa-kun and Rin-san. You will hurt Hiro's heart and Haru and a love that hurts like that… that can't be love… that can't be the way love is meant to be!"

"And what would a stupid, ugly girl like you know about it!" Akito raged advancing on Tohru. She raised her cane above her head, her face twisted in rage. "Your wishes are not what matters! Your memory _will_ be erased but not before I teach you to respect a God!" Akito brought the cane down toward Tohru's face. Instinctively Tohru crossed her arms in front of her face, blocking the blow of the cane.

"Aaaaah!" She couldn't contain the cry of pain as the weapon cracked harshly across her wrists. Her knees buckled and she involuntarily fell toward the ground. Akito drew back to strike again.

"Noo!" Shouted Yuki, he ran placing himself between Tohru and Akito.

"You bastard!" Kyo screamed, he tried to get to Tohru, but Hatori and Shigure held him back.

"Hold him Gure!" Hatori shouted, Kyo was really fighting them, his elbow slammed into Shigure's face. Hatori pulled out a hypodermic needle with some kind of medication in it and quickly injected the cat in the shoulder with it. Kyo looked at him in shock, the betrayal in his eyes like a knife in Hatori's heart. He truly was as cold as snow. Kyo screamed an inhuman sound of rage and pain. From some impossible reserve of strength born of need to be at Tohru's side he threw off Shigure and landed a blow to Hatori. He stumbled forward two steps. He called her name, and then slumped to his knees. Hatori caught him as he fell to the ground.

There was a low roar of tires spinning and gravel being churned up as two brilliant headlights flooded the clearing with a silver glow. There was the whine of brake pads worn down to nubs as a beat up tan car screeched to a stop. And then twin sisters of Vengeance and Fury emerged from the vehicle.

An electric light flashed from vengeances midnight tresses as her gaze sought and found Tohru.

Fury held her pipe like a warriors blade and wielded it with brutal and lethal efficiency. Hatori cried out as Arisa slammed the pipe into his wrist. He heard the sound of snapping bone. His wrist was broken. Without pause Arisa slammed the pipe across the side of Shigure's jaw. She heard the sound of dislocated bone and grinned in feral exuberance.

"You dare place yourself between me and my vengeance Yuki!" Akito screamed. Yuki bit his lip to keep from whimpering. When Akito raised that cane to strike Tohru, something inside him screamed to life. He knew what it was like to be on the other end of that cane. He knew the damage that Akito could do with it. He could strip the flesh from bones, he could crack ribs, he could scar.

Yuki couldn't allow that to be done to Tohru. He stood in front of her his arms open wide as the first of the insane blows from Akito landed on him. Tohru's eyes met his. He was going to take this beating for her. He was going to suffer because of her. She flinched as she heard Akito's mad screeching and watched a shudder ripple through Yuki's thin body as he took yet another blow meant for her. He was biting his lip to keep from crying out and blood ran from his chin. She heard Kyo shout her name. She looked to the side and watched him fall to his knees. His head lolled back. Kyo was suffering as well. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion. She saw Uo-Chan land a blow on Hatori's wrist, saw his flash of pain as he fell. She saw her strike Shigure. She knew Uo would take care of Kyo. She turned back to Yuki. He was yelling at her, telling her… something. She watched another shudder rip through him and his chest lurched forward.

NO! She couldn't help Kyo right now, but she would help Yuki! She wrapped her arms around him. PYONG! Suddenly where Yuki had stood was a small white mouse in her arms Tohru fell forward and hunched low to the ground. When the first blow landed she screamed at the fire running the length of her back, but she hadn't even finished the first cry when the second blow landed. Yuki was struggling to get away but she held him tight to her cradling him to her neck as blow after blow landed.

"No! Honda-San, noo!" She heard Yuki cry out as if from far away.

"Not for me Yuki-kun, you will not suffer for me." Tohru smiled softly before another scream escaped her as another blow landed. Suddenly the blows stopped. Tohru didn't know how or why, she only knew she had to get to Kyo's side. Cradling Yuki close to her heart she crawled in agony toward where she had seen Kyo fall. She made it, but only with Arisa's help.

"Kyo," she croaked through her broken voice. "Kyo, can you hear me. She slapped his face, he didn't respond.

"That doctor did something to him." Uo-chan barked. There was a poof of smoke. Arisa gasped as suddenly Yuki was right beside them, he was naked as a newborn and there was blood running down his back. Ayame and Haru ran to his side.

"Yuki are you ok?" Haru cried. Yuki nodded, his eyes were riveted to the blood soaking through the back of Honda-sans graduation robe. A shrill cry suddenly broke through the clearing

"Hatori!!" Yuki, Ayame, and Haru all turned and gasped at what they saw. Lightning arched and cracked between Hanajima's upraised hands. Sweat ran down her face and she was breathing hard. Smoke curled from Akito's hair and she was on her knees clutching her chest.

"Hatori!" Akito cried again, "help me!" Hatori was helpless to resist such a summons from his god. He stood and ran to her side Shigure ran as well. He would not allow anything to happen to Akito. The thought filled his heart with raw terror.

"Stop it Hanajima!" He shouted. She turned to him strain evident in her face.

"I am trying!" She gasped out. "The vibes- I can't control- Aaaaa!" She screamed and lightning arced from her hands to a tree just behind Shigure's shoulder, The trunk exploded. Splinters rained out. One of them struck Shigure in the shoulder. He cried out.

"Get that woman out of here!" Hanajima gritted through clenched teeth. "She hurt Tohru. My entire being is crying out for her death. The only reason she lives now is because… she is protected somehow. If you value her life take her now… I cannot hold onto this forever." Hanajima fell to her knees, lightning swirled and arced around her. She tried to breathe deeply, tried to lock away the rage that consumed her but she kept seeing that thing- that man woman striking her Tohru- her precious Tohru. She screamed as an agony of power lanced through her begging for release.

"Hana-chan!" Tohru's concerned voice cut through her rage like an arrow through the air. Her eyes locked onto Tohru's. The worry and fear Hanajima saw reflected there dispelled the last of her rage and Hanajima stumbled to her feet, slightly dizzy from the sudden loss of power and ran to her friend's side.

Tohru took in the drawn concerned faces of her friends. She heard the limo pull away as Shigure, Hatori, and Akito left. Yuki was pale and bleeding.. Ayame was practically holding his brother up, Hatsuharu was cradling Kyo's head in his lap. Her eyes were drawn to the side of the house. A small shadow twitched.

"Momiji-kun!" She cried. With a sob he launched himself at her. Haru wouldn't let me help you! I tried Mutti! I tried but Haru wouldn't let me!" His arms flew around her and with a Pyon! He was a small yellow bunny. Uo-chan and Hana-chan stared in disbelief at the weeping rabbit. Tohru sighed wearily.

"It's too much," She grunted. "We have to get out of here. I'll explain everything to you later." Tohru turned to look at the Sohmas one last time. They all looked at her bloodied form with newfound respect. This day, their tiny Tohru had stood against a God proclaiming her love for them. She had saved one of their own from a beating and fought to keep memories that would only bring her pain.

Ayame, took her face in his hands and pressed his cheek to hers. "I love you as well, little flower. May you find joy wherever life takes you."

"You really are amazing." Haru said softly. He laid his hand on her shoulder squeezing softly. "Whoever ends up with you will be a lucky man indeed. Good Luck Tohru." He stood and walked away. Her eyes immediately went to Yuki's. He pushed a loose strand of hair back over her shoulder. "I never got to tell you… how much you mean to me."

"I love you Yuki-kun. Uo-chan and Hana-chan they are going to help me become strong. When I am stronger I will come back for you. I will save you all. A world… without Yuki-kun is a world I never want to know. So I will leave you for a little while. But high walls will not hold me out forever. Fire burns down walls that reach too high." He was mesmerized. _I love you Yuki-kun._ His heart was ready to burst. Her fire had burned down all his walls. This was his last chance. She'd taken a beating for him.

"I… Love you Tohru Honda-san!" He burst out. Her eyes widened. She'd known, she'd always known, inside herself. But hearing it aloud… It changed everything. She put her hand at the base of his neck and pulled his face toward hers. She pressed her lips to his. It was not the greatest kiss in the history of the world. In fact it was more a simple touch of skin to skin with lips. Nonetheless fire arced and jolted through Yuki from his lips to his curling toes. Tohru was affected similarly.

"Tohru, are we taking him with us?" Arisa asked, gesturing to Kyo. Yuki was alarmed. If Tohru tried to come between Akito and a member of his Juunishi- even the cat, she would never stop hunting her.

"No, Kyo said the same thing this morning that he's always been saying. I sometimes think he feels he deserves to be locked up." She turned to Yuki. "I know you can't interfere in Akito's plans. But please… tell him I'm coming back for him." Yuki nodded wordlessly. He was a bit nonplussed when she lowered her head and kissed that stupid cat on the lips. "Tell him I love him." She whispered studying Kyo's face as if memorizing the details. She then rose quickly.

She ran into the house and a few moments later she was back at Kyo's side she pulled out a small square frame. In it was the picture of her mother.

"Give this to Kyo. She'll watch over him when I can't." Yuki couldn't believe it. She was giving that cat the picture of her mother. He watched her lovingly stroke Kyo's cheek with her hand. "He will be alone in that house. He'll need her…besides," she looked up at him with troubled eyes, "I think I might have to do some things mom might not approve of…" She looked away and slowly stood. She looked to Arisa and Hanajima. They were calmly waiting for her.

"I made a promise to my mom that I would graduate. Now I make a promise to Yuki and Kyo and any member of the Juunishi who wants to be free. I will become stronger. I will find a way to free you. I will be back." She turned away from them then so they wouldn't have to suffer any more of her tears and stepped into the car.

Arisa turned on the ignition and the tan car disappeared from sight. It would be a long time, a little over a year, in fact, before any member of the Sohma clan would see her again. During that time though, there were those who remembered her promise, Ayame referred to it as her War prayer for love, and they hoped.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 Fighting**

"Stop holding back Tohru! If you really want to fight, then you have to be willing to hurt your opponent." Uo-chan was right, Tohru knew that, but even with the sticks they used for practice, Tohru just couldn't bear to hurt Uo-chan. Arisa was becoming frustrated. They'd been practicing for three months now. She knew the basics of combat and she was quite proficient with her metal pipe. But Tohru couldn't bring herself to land a single blow. She always stopped just short of striking. Arisa frowned at the welts and bruises that peppered Tohru's arms and legs. She knew there wasn't a single bruise on her own body.

"I'm sorry Uo-chan." Tohru whispered miserably. Arisa sighed heavily.

"It's alright, but we're done for today, I can't really stomach the thought of hurting you anymore."

"Hey, you girls, I got a couple of deliveries for you, if you're done playing around." The voice was deep and gravelly and belonged to their new boss. Mite Himagawa owned the Cozy Cat buffet and delivery restaurant. Tohru took it as divine providence when they arrived in Hume and saw the help wanted sign in the window. She'd immediately gone in and applied for a position Arisa needed a job as well so they both applied. They were accepted on the spot and almost immediately pressed into delivery service.

Hanajima stayed with her grandmother during the day. She was trying to harness her powers. What happened between her and Akito had terrified her. She didn't want to lose control of herself like that again. She had not even been aware that her powers had grown so strong, that she was even capable of summoning a storm of lightning. Truthfully, it had even freaked Arisa out.

Tohru didn't talk too much about that night. She'd reluctantly explained the details of the curse which the Sohma's suffered under as the three of them left town that night three weeks ago. When Hanajima realized she had used her abilities against a god she'd gone white.

Although Tohru didn't say anything Arisa knew she was suffering. She didn't eat much and it was beginning to show. Her clothes were fitting looser. There were dark circles under her eyes proving that she hadn't been sleeping very well. She'd been exercising with Arisa everyday. They ran three miles every morning before work and ran through a gamut of aerobic exercises and muscle toning techniques in the evening. Arisa usually fell into an exhausted heap. Apparently Tohru was not so tired. If she was, she wasn't sleeping. Arisa had awakened during the night a couple of times to use the bathroom, returning to the room the three girls shared to find Tohru with her eyes wide open staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Sure thing boss." Arisa was abruptly jerked from her musings at the sound of Tohru's cheerful voice. She watched as Tohru carefully took the food and placed it in the basket on the delivery bike. She took a moment to latch her helmet beneath her chin before turning the bike around and beginning her ride. Arisa watched her worriedly.

"She'll never be a fighter." Mite chuckled softly his voice like gravel crunching beneath car tires. Arisa leveled a cool glare at her boss's head.

"Then she's going to die." Mite's eyes widened.

"Why should a sweet little miss like Tohru have to learn to fight? She should find herself a man. He would protect her." Mite shook his head affirmatively then bit down on his pipe as if that settled the matter. Arisa gave a short, sharp laugh.

"She has two of them. That's why she has to learn to fight. She's determined to save them." Arisa snatched up her deliveries, enjoying the look of disgruntled surprise on the boss's face before she too pulled away to make her deliveries. Her smile faded as she drove off. Tohru really was going to have to learn to fight. Although she was getting more adept at dodging blows, moving with more grace and speed, she refused to strike out except halfheartedly. Arisa had attempted to goad Tohru into getting angry, but when your opponent was someone you loved and each angry word fell like broken glass into a raw and open wound you quickly found any excuse to end the exercise.

Tohru just didn't have it in her to inflict harm on another person. Arisa had known this, of course, but Tohru insisted she needed to learn to fight. Arisa just couldn't see any solution to the dilemma. Tohru would be adequate in defense, more than adequate actually, if her speed and agility kept improving, but she just didn't have what it took to truly fight back.

Mite Himagawa watched the tough yankee ride away. He was troubled. Since the girls arrival three months prior he had delighted in the infectious joy of their presence. That yankee was funny, always looking out for the little one, she nevertheless had a good and gentle soul beneath her tough girl façade. Tohru Honda- now there was someone truly special. She always wore a bright smile, she cooked like an angel and cleaned better than his own dear departed mother. She was always willing to accept more responsibility, and she worried and fussed over him in a manner the old man secretly delighted in.

Anytime her duties at the restaurant permitted she was either exercising or begging Uotani to "train her". Mite was curious at the motivation that seemed to drive the girl constantly. Occasionally he would catch her staring pensively out a window or back up the only road that led into Hume. Her eyes would be dark and haunted. His heart would twist as he again wondered what drove her so hard. What could have possibly happened to cause her such pain?

_She's going to die…_

His heart rebelled at the thought. Why did her boyfriends need to be rescued? And Tohru just didn't strike him as the kind of girl who went in for two men at once? He grinned at the absurdity of the idea. She was just too naïve. Maybe she liked one as a friend and had her heart set on the other. She was a mystery. Mite decided to close shop early. If Tohru needed to learn to fight, he knew a method that she could probably master. He'd admired her aversion to violence and the rapidity with which she improved her speed and grace. If she could continue such dramatic improvements the ancient art of acupuncture battle could work perfectly for her. In particular, her own innocent nature would aid her in its application. She could place a needle, effectively immobilizing an enemy without causing any truly lasting harm.

Mite knew the art well, as it was practiced in his family for generations, usually by the women, but his mother had died when he was a boy and his grandmother had raised him. His wife had died delivering their only child twenty years earlier and he had never remarried. The art as his family had practiced would undoubtedly die with him unless he found someone he could teach it to. He pondered how best to broach it. He did know one thing for sure. He didn't want Tohru to die and if she needed to know how to fight he wanted to help her.

Tohru steadily pedaled her bike to the address indicated on the order she was delivering. She wore a flower print baby doll dress with a brown vest. She had worn holes in all her socks and the soles of her shoes had been super glued together twice. She knew she was in desperate need if some new clothes but the thought of spending any of the money she had been hoarding made her feel queasy. She didn't know how much she would need later.

Worry consumed her. She tried to put on a brave face. She didn't cry when the others could see her. She didn't talk about her desperate worry or the gnawing desire to run right back to the Sohma's and demand she be allowed to see Kyo at the very least. Her worry for him was what drove her past exhaustion. She thought of him sitting alone in that house and vomit rose into her mouth. She trained harder than she had ever done anything before.

_I want you to know what it feels like to hold a diploma in your hand…_

Tohru felt her eyes water as she remembered her mother's words. She knew what it felt like.

It felt like terror.

Like the end.

The day she received her diploma was the day everything went wrong. Somehow she had to find a way to put things right.

She needed to find a way to protect her mind from Hatori. She needed a way to fight Akito. With all the good she found in all the members of the zodiac Tohru knew there had to be some good in Akito. The weakness had been in herself that was why she hadn't been able to find it and help Akito see the beauty in Kyo and in the other members of the Juunishi. Tohru admitted that Akito terrified her. Her power over the others, her frightening authority, her homicidal rages, and her ability to find people's weaknesses and use them to hurt them stirred feelings of rage and dislike in Tohru. Tohru didn't like these feelings. She wanted to see the best in everyone, including Akito. But Akito must have sensed her reserve. That had to be why she was so cruel.

Tohru shuddered as she remembered the beating Akito had given her. She still had huge lurid yellow bruises on her back and angry red scab tissue that clung to her shirt everyday. It was an arduous process peeling off her clothes at the end of a workday after she had sweat through them.

Tohru knew fighting Akito with a metal pipe or any weapon wouldn't really work in freeing her boys. Fighting Akito was going to require mystical aid. That would undoubtedly require money if it could even be found. So Tohru couldn't bare the thought of spending anymore of the money she earned on herself than necessary. Every extra yen earned could bring her that much closer to saving Kyo, seeing Yuki and the others again and reaching Akito's heart.

She made her delivery swiftly, accepting the offered tip with a blush and stumbling over her words of gratitude before starting the trek back to the restaurant. As she sped away she remembered how she obtained her position as a delivery girl. As soon as she saw the big orange cat in the window and the small help wanted sign next to it, Tohru had been drawn to the Cozy cat.

Mite Himagawa, the Café's owner, was a round older man whose gentle but lonely heart lay bare in his eyes for all the world to see. She'd felt an immediate kinship with the man. He had thin greasy hair that hung to his shoulders and fat pudgy fingers. But his smile was rounder than his face and his manner was so friendly one couldn' help but relax around him. He reminded her of Shigure in a lot of ways. Mite had evaluated her skill by having her keep the buffet full during the luncheon rush. He was amazed at her level of proficiency and he just sat back and watched her move. If cooking and keeping a kitchen clean had been a form of martial arts Tohru would have been a black belt. She knew Mite had been impressed. He gave her the job that day. She did a little of everything, deliveries, cooking, cleaning, waiting tables. Uo-Chan did some of that too and she managed the register. Tohru knew that if she didn't constantly worry about Kyo locked away in that box she could have been very happy in Hume.

Tohru's leg muscles strained as she pushed firmly on the pedals, her breath came in labored gasps as she forced herself to pedal harder up the hill. The sun beat down on her head and the top of her dress was already soaked through with sweat. The thin material clung to her slight curves like a second skin. As she crested the rise pedaling became easier and she made it back to the Cozy Cat quickly. She was surprised to find Mite sitting on the front stoop, pipe in hand grinning quizzically up at her, the air rich with the scent of tobacco, the closed sign displayed in his window.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" Tohru asked, concern coloring her voice. Mite waved his hand dismissively, taking a long drag on his pipe before blowing a plume of smoke into the air.

"Everything's fine. I just decided to close shop early today. I have something I want to show you." Tohru cocked her head sideways considering the old man as he heaved himself to his feet. He laughed wheezily. "I'm not as young as I used to be, that gets harder to do every day."

"Nonsense," Tohru demurred, "you're young yet, you just need more practice."

"Mmm, that's what I wanted to talk to you about dear, your practices with Uotani."

Tohru turned a brilliant crimson. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to cause any problems, its just that we weren't busy and we had some free time and I didn't know we were bothering anybody so I thought it would be okay to practice in the yard, but I can see now that it may have been a problem and-" in the middle of her stammered apology Mite shifted his weight slightly. His arm moved so swiftly that Tohru never saw it land but the next second she fell to her knees immobile and silent. It wasn't that she had stopped speaking; it was simply that suddenly even though her brain was sending the messages to her mouth to speak her mouth had simply stopped responding to the impulses.

"Your practice is fine and is not disturbing me in the least, except for the fact that you are continually getting beat up due to your aversion to violence. I propose to teach you a new fighting style. It is a secret technique handed down to the women in my family for generations. There is no one to pass it onto in my family. My grandmother taught it to me when I was a child hoping I would pass it on to my own daughter but I never had a child and so I would like to teach you. It is a technique that relies on speed, dexterity and finite precision, but it is not violent. You need never land a single blow." He bent down beside her and pulled a pin from the side of her neck. "All you need do is place the pin correctly. You can immobilize and silence your opponent as I did you, you can put them into a relaxing sleep. You can drop them to the ground with the same ease as I did you and all it requires is precision. You can bring them pain, you can grant them pleasure. It is all in the placement of the needle. Think about it." Mite smiled and took her hand. He dropped the pin into her palm and patted her on the head before lumbering down the road toward his home leaving Tohru staring numbly after him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 Hope**

She was still staring at the pin in her hand when Arisa came pedaling up the road ten minutes later.

"Yo, Tohru!" Arisa called. Tohru paid no heed to her friends greeting. The implications of what Mite had told her still sinking in. In the bottom of her stomach she felt an easing of a tension she had not known was there. Here then was a way she could fight more amenable to her nature. For the first time in three months she allowed herself to hope.

It was that hope Arisa saw in her eyes when she came up beside her friend and shook her gently by the shoulder.

"Tohru, didn't you hear me calling you- what is that?" Arisa asked delighting in the smile blossoming over Tohru's face.

"Uo-Chan, I think I may have found a way to fight for Kyo and Yuki!"

Hanajima wrinkled her brow in concentration as a ball of black lightning the size of a golfball began to form and crackle in her hand. Sweat drenched her black babydoll dress and strands of her dark hair clung to her skin as she fought to master the swirling power inside her. It wasn't so much a matter of controlling what she held in her hand as it was controlling the power within her.

"Focus little cub, your power is a reflection of your heart, summoned forth at your will, it has no life on its own. The power you have is you. And as it is you it is yours to control. Let go your fear and the control will come so that even in the face of rage you will be its master." Hanajima listened with half an ear to her grandmother's instructions. She tried to let go of the fear she felt towards her powers but she could not entirely vanquish them. She knew without a doubt that they were responsible for putting that kid in a coma in elementary school. She also knew they had the ability to kill, if Hatori and Shigure hadn't taken that Godling Akito away she would have blown him, or her, to bits.

She knew too she would not have regretted it. The night they got away Hanajima had treated Tohru's wounds. Her back was a lacerated mishmash of cane imprints. Tohru had wept softly as Hanajima had pried her shirt from the half formed scabs and crusted blood on her back. Some of the wounds were so deep Hanajima had wanted to get stitches but Tohru was afraid that the Sohma's would think to check the hospitals, so she was forced to use an entire box of butterly sutures on two of the gashes.

In total Hanajima counted 9 deep gouges and 4 that were merely dark purple bruises with red splotches surrounding them, due to exploded capillaries. The longer Hanajima worked on Tohru's back the angrier she became; that anyone could bear to do this to Tohru was unforgivable.

A darkness awoke within her, fierce and wild. The air was full of electricity, Arisa cried out as she accidentally bumped into the table-light in the dingy motel room they were staying in and got shocked by a burst of static. Once Tohru's wounds were cleaned and bandaged Hanajima stepped into the night air. Storm clouds had already been roiling and gathering over the motel. As Hanajima entered the darkness she emitted a feral cry of bloodlust so fierce a dog yipped in the distance. The heavens roared to life and unleashed their fury in a torrential onslaught of rain. Black lightning crackled, purple at the edges; and Hanajima knew it was her doing. The thought terrified and thrilled her at the same time.

With such power she could be sure that no one would ever harm Tohru again. But such power had the potential to destroy the bond she had formed with Tohru and Arisa if it went uncontrolled. She turned to her grandmother; many claimed she had powers different than ordinary people. Her grandmother did have some power but not anything to compare with Hana's. But she taught her granddaughter what she could. Hanajima eagerly listened and she was an apt pupil, but her fear of her own power was holding her back. And Hanajima knew that if Tohru didn't find a power of her own to protect her mind from Hatori that there was always the potential that her memories could get erased.

"Saki-kun, you are not concentrating. That is enough for today." Her grandmothers soft voice put an end to her intensity and the ball of lightning flickered out and disappeared.

"Where did you go child, that was so important that it distracted you from your training?" Her grandmother asked. Saki heaved a sigh before shifting from her cross-legged position to her knees so she could better see her grandmother.

Tokeri Hanajima was a handsome older woman whose eyes sparkled with a dark mystique and no small amount of intelligence. Her ebony hair was thick and piled atop her head in a loose bun, the barest hint of silver adorned the hair near her ears. Tokeri always dressed in shades of purple and lavender, she claimed it brought out the sparkle in her eyes. She was soft spoken and humble but beneath her gentle demeanor lurked an iron will that had enabled her to raise two children on her own when her husband was killed in the war. Using her keen intuition she had become a renowned faith healer and herb woman in her town and was widely respected and loved by those that knew her. Saki Hanajima knew that if anyone could help her help Tohru it was her grandmother.

"I was thinking of our dear Tohru, grandmother. I will strive ever to be at her side, protecting her from Hatori's powers, but there may come a time when Hatori will get her away from me, it only takes a second and all the precious memories Tohru clings to so dearly will be taken from her." Saki's grandmother eyed her granddaughter speculatively.

"And how does that make you feel little cub?" As if in answer, thunder rumbled a low warning in the sky as sparks shot from Hanajima's eyes.

" It would be the same as rape. If Tohru had her mind violated by the Sohma doctor, I… I know I would do something terrible…" Hanajima's gaze did not waver as she met eyes with her grandmother. Tokeri nodded sagely, trying to ignore the chill that went down her spine. Good Spirits, protect her grand daughter from ever making such a choice!

"I know of no potion or charm that would protect Tohru from the kind of power you have spoken of." Saki was silent for so long that Tokeri thought that the matter was done until her granddaughter whispered to her.

"What of Aidoriku?"

Tokeri hissed between her clenched teeth. She responded in a voice that trembled with fear and anger.

"For years Aodoriku has made his bargains and deals with the demon world and the world of the living. No good will ever come of asking for his aid. The price is always higher than the supplicant should be willing to pay and none who have gone to him for help have ever wound up happy. Be prepared to lose something dear should you go to him for help." Hanajima nodded and looked away, her dark hair shielding her eyes from her grandmother. Saki knew there was no price too high for Tohru to pay to keep her memories and thusly there was no price too high that Saki Hanajima would not pay for Tohru's happiness.

Tohru was so excited that Arisa couldn't help laughing at her exuberance. Arisa had missed this Tohru. Tohru had told her the story about Mite's magic pin at least six times already and of his offer to teach her. She was in the process of reiterating the story for the seventh time as they closed in on Hanajima who sat on the front porch of her grandmother's small home.

Tohru paused in her story to rush to Hanajima's side. She grasped the dark haired girls pale hands in her own and pulled her to her feet, dancing in a circle. Saki laughed lightly a sound rusty from disuse, but rich with genuine joy. Here was the Tohru who had disappeared that fateful night.

"Hana-chan, its wonderful! Today, Uo-chan and I were training like usual when we had to deliver some orders. When I returned Mite was waiting for me He was so fast I never saw it coming and then I couldn't move or speak or anything I could just stand there, but I wasn't hurt at all. He said he would teach me and so I can fight without hurting anyone and I can protect the people I love just like mom!"

Saki threw back her head in joy as Tohru wheeled her around the front lawn and when at last The girl calmed down she sat next to her letting her lean her soft brown haired head on her shoulders as she caught her breath. Hana looked up to Arisa and mouthed the words _what is going on?_ Arisa just smiled. She gave her a look that said I'll tell you later. Finally after catching her breath Tohru sat up.

"So, Hana-chan, how was your training?" Hana's eyes darkened. She was still a little uncomfortable openly discussing her newfound powers.

"Well, the more I practice the easier it gets to control the waves; I can also sense people farther away than I used to be able to, if I choose to. The problems occur when I am very emotional, the lightning comes too readily and I can't always control it perfectly." Hanajima stared directly into Tohru's eyes, searching for any hint of fear or disgust, sure that there should be some, if only a little. But all she saw was Tohru's smile.

"Well, just keep doing your best Hana-chan and I will do my best as well, and soon we can go and rescue Kyo and the others."

"Yeah, about that Tohru," Arisa interjected as she again brought up a subject they had gone through many times, "none of the Sohma's really wanted you to rescue them, how will you do it without their consent. I mean if you want I can bash the heads in of any who resist and we can drag them out of there, but eventually they will wake up."

"I still don't know Uo-chan, all I know is that I can't leave them all. Especially Kyo." Arisa cringed inwardly as Tohru's smile dimmed and her face returned to that dark haunted look that had painted her features for the past three months.

"Since we're talking about ways to save them have you discovered any way to keep Hatori from erasing your memories?" Hanajima questioned.

"Well… ummm… not really. I mean I've asked people if they know of anyone with sacred powers or special abilities, I tell them I want a charm that will help me find a man to fall in love with so they don't think me strange. They always refer me to Tokeri-San. Has your grandmother got any idea how I can fight Hatori's power?" Hanajima shook her head.

"There is another person who could help. But he is not a man to take lightly and I fear he will do us more harm then good."

"But Hana-chan if he's all we have then we have to try! I do not wish to suffer but when I picture Kyo-kun locked up in that little house or…" Tohru's voice immediately caught on a sob as tears pooled and spilled from her eyes, "or Yuki kun never smiling again, of something awful happening to Rin-San because she loves Hatsuharu-san, or poor Kisa and Hiro, and Momiji is all alone and I promised him I would come back- well no matter what harm this other person does it will be worth it if it can help me protect my memories and save the Sohma's!" Her huge limpid eyes were all the convincing Saki needed to trust that she had made the right decision.

"Alright then. We will use this man, Aodoriku, only as a last resort if we haven't found a way to protect your memories by the end of winter." Tohru smiled satisfied.

The next few months passed in a blur for the three girls. Tohru began training four hours a day with Mite as he taught her the skill of the needle. She continued strengthening her endurance by running with Arisa every morning. Hanajima continued to master her training, her fear of her power never truly went away but she learned to control the fear just as she learned to control her abilities Arisa began lifting weights and Tohru soon joined her, even Saki began training with them as they all tried to condition their bodies to be strong. Tohru's speed improved dramatically as well as her dexterity. As she strengthened her core muscles she became better able to shift her center of gravity. She could leap higher, swing farther up. Arisa tested her on their runs and they leapt fences and gates, they climbed trees and even climbed up the rocky face of a Cliffside base of a mountain.

Together the girls swam upstream in icy waters to condition their muscles and strengthen their endurance. Saki was amazed at the transformation in Tohru. She stood taller, she moved with more grace than ever, her stride took on a confidence it had never had before. And in the entire time not once did she falter or complain. She pushed herself feverishly toward every new goal as if time was running out for her.

In a sense it was. Tohru had decided she would return for the Sohma's after one year away from them. Any longer and she feared they would give up hope. As the end of winter loomed before them Saki was faced with the unpleasant realization that the three of them were going to have to hike up into the mountains to Aodoriku's place to see if he could help them. In spite of all their preparations and all their training they still had no way to protect themselves from Hatori's mind wipe.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 Journey into the mountains**

"Tohru don't forget the antiseptic ointment." Arisa called out.

"Hai, Uo-chan. I just finished preparing our lunches I'll start putting together a first aid kit now."

"Hana, is it really going to take us three days to get to this guys place?" Arisa asked. Hana swallowed nervously and nodded.

"Three days there and three days back and however long it takes to conclude our business with this man." Hanajima was nervous about dealing with the guy. She had told as much to both Tohru and Arisa but Tohru would not be put off. Before she returned to face the Sohma's she had to find a way to protect her mind. Hanajima's grandmother had grave misgivings but she was out of her depth when it came to Hatori's power.

It was the same when dealing with the power of her grand daughter. Saki remembered a painful conversation that had occurred just days earlier.

_"Little cub, I can teach you no more about your abilities."_

_"But Grandmother, there is so much I need to know." Saki had protested._

_"Sweet little cub, so little of the claims of power in this world ever hold true. My intuition is keen as was my mothers before me as is your father's. But your power is a greater thing than ever have I known. Your fear will never allow you to fully control your gift and so I fear for you if you use it."_

_"But grand mother I have learned much in how to control my abilities."_

_"But you fear it… as do I." Saki rocked back on her heels. What she had always feared had come to pass; one whom she loved feared her because of her abilities. Her face flushed hotly. She stood to leave, her hair falling around her face to conceal her pain. Her grand mothers hand shot out grabbing hers. _

_"Little cub it does not diminish my love for you. Tread carefully if you approach Aodoriku, he will know your power. He may have designs on it. Be cautious. Be wary." Hanajima nodded but the hurt did not fade. She moved off in search of Tohru. Her tender smile would banish her pain._

It was precisely because Tohru loved and accepted her unconditionally that Hanajima resolved to do whatever it took to get her the aid she would need, regardless of the cost to herself. This was her resolve. To protect the one who accepted her completely. Aside from her precious brother Megume no one had ever fully accepted Hana for who she was. Arisa was her dear friend but ever since she had shown her power against Akito there had been a strain between them.

Tohru approached her with a sunny smile, shrugging on her knapsack. As spring returned to the world so too had it returned to Tohru's smile. It was as if she were awakening from hibernation and the thought of being with the Sohma's had sent her into full bloom. Saki hardly dared admit it even to herself, but she was jealous of Tohru's devotion to the Sohma's. She returned Tohru's smile with one of her own.

"Let's go, shall we?" The three girls departed, they steadily left behind the town of Hume and the terrain became rougher and wilder. Eventually they left the road completely behind and began trekking up an old deer trail treading lightly over the seldom-used path.

"Wow, Hana-chan, Uo-chan, look at these, aren't they beautiful!" Hana rubbed the sweat out of her eyes with a lavender scarf she had borrowed from her grandmother. She looked to see what Tohru was looking at.

It was fireweed. They bloomed in untamed abandon over the hillside amidst the fern and bamboo shoots. Some were crimson and others orange and yet more a golden yellow. That Tohru could take such unmitigated delight in a simple weed was just like her.

"Tohru, I am delighted you can find such beauty on this trip but honestly I detest nature especially this much of it, let's keep going." Arisa tried not to let her annoyance show but she was clearly uncomfortable far from the boundaries of concrete and steel.

The path was getting steeper so all talking ceased as the girls continued trudging upward. At last the deer path ended and a winding road wide enough for two to walk abreast appeared before them. Hanajima lead the way.

Tohru's training served her well. Almost a year previous Tohru would have never made it this far, her clumsy, inexperienced steps would have faltered, her lungs would have given out, and she most likely would have twisted or broken something.

Now her footsteps were carefully placed, her stride wide and sure and her breath came in even gasps as she was hardly winded. The path was not easy going. It was strewn with thorny brambles and rocks and loose sand drifts in some places that made swift passage difficult. To make matters worse, the superglue on Tohru's right shoe had come undone and the sole was barely hanging on.

It was an exhausted trio that stopped for the midday meal. Tohru broke out the water bottles and onigiri she had prepared for them. They ate mostly in silence. Tohru was excited about finally meeting with this Aodoriku. She hoped fervently that he would have a way to protect her mind from Hatori's power. A few minutes later the three resumed their trek. They were making steady progress.

"If we keep this pace we may reach Aodoriku's home in two days instead of three." Hanajima commented eyeing the position of the sun with satisfaction. Arisa laughed huskily.

"That'd be great. The sooner we get there the sooner we can get back and away from all this damn nature. I swear to God its all over me, even places it shouldn't be!" She griped as she pulled a piece of foliage from the armpit of her blouse. Tohru giggled softly.

"Kyo-kun would love to see you now. This is his element. Trekking through the wilds, he would just love to show you up Uo-chan." Arisa laughed again.

"He would at that. Ol' Orangey never did like losing to me, everything was a competition between us, and he really got off on pitting his strength or skill against anybody." Tohru smiled and nodded.

"That's Kyo-Kun, always so passionate about everything. His entire life he has had to fight for anything to be his own, he was left out of everything, but never allowed to go off on his own. Akito-sama always made him stand on the outside looking in. But Kyo-Kun, he never let it bring him down, he fought on, and when other people would have crumbled he fought to build an identity for himself. Other peoplem except for Kazuma- they never believed he was any good, so he would pit his strength against theirs to show them how good he was. He just wanted to be accepted, or acknowledged. Even when he failed he would get up and try again. Quitting or giving up is not how Kyo-kun lives. To fight and struggle, that is Kyo-kun's life. Even now while he is locked away, kept from the sun and living alone he clings to life. He will not allow Akito or anyone to defeat him. He will live, if for no other reason than because they don't want him to." Arisa and Saki stared in awe at Tohru, her face was glowing as if a light had been lit inside her.

Her voice was so full of warmth and love that both girls felt the stirrings of envy. As Tohru spoke her eyes welled with tears. She let them fall as they may. She seemed unaware of the path they tracked through the dirt on her face as she talked of Kyo's struggle.

"And that is why I will never give up. Kyo-kun would fight for me to the end of the world. He would never allow me to be locked away from the sun. I will use his strength to help me save him and all the others. That is why I will not give up." She stood resolutely and smiling brilliantly through her tears she stepped forward. The other two girls fell in beside her.

They continued their hike until dusk. As the light began to fade and the sky turned from blue to crimson, to lavender, Arisa called a halt.

"I'll begin to set up the tent, Hana, can you get us some firewood?"

"Not a problem Arisa." Hana began searching the perimeter of their impromptu campground for dead wood to use for a campfire.

"I'll gather stones and dig a fire pit." Tohru volunteered. She pulled out a collapsible shovel they had packed specifically for that purpose and began digging. In a few moments the pit was dug, the ground wasn't especially hard. She then looked for stones to ring the pit, but there were none to be found.

"It's okay Tohru, just line the pit with a ring of the soil you just dug up." Arisa told her when she spied her problem.

"Hai!" Tohru complied. After lining the shallow hole with a ring of soil Saki placed the wood she had found into the pit. As Tohru fumbled through the knapsack for the lighter they had bought the fire roared to sudden life. Tohru jumped back in surprise. Saki laughed.

"It's okay Tohru, I was just trying out my new abilities. I've definitely mastered at least a small level of control." Saki sat down next to Tohru. Tohru was still staring at the crackling fire in surprise.

"You did that Hana-chan?!" There was a note of wonder in her voice. It brought a rich smile to Saki Hanajima's face, the smile reserved solely for Tohru and sometimes her brother Megume.

"I did. Does my talent frighten you Tohru-Chan?" Hana asked suddenly very serious. Tohru thought for a moment before answering.

"I guess it would, if you were anyone else. But you are Hana-chan. I know your heart. I have no need to fear you, or your power." Tohru shot her a quick smile as she dug through the knapsack for the yams and Raman cups they had brought with them. "I actually think its cool, I wish I had a skill like that." Hana relaxed as she watched Tohru prep the meal. Her dark eyes lightened as she discerned the slight furrow on Tohru's brow and the curl of distaste on her nose as she put water over the fire. Tohru really did disapprove of instant food

_it's just not healthy_ she had told them countless times.

As the last rays of the sun dipped behind the horizon and night unfurled her blanket of stars Hana delighted at the play of firelight over Tohru's hair and face. Tohru had grown taller the past year. Her childhood angles had been replaced by the sinew and curves of a woman. She had lost weight so her face was a tad gaunt and her hips a bit bony, but it lent her a waif-like, and fragile appearance that Hana found endearing. As Tohru continued her work Hanajima realized that she was more content in that moment than she had ever been in the whole of her life.

Being at Tohru's side, helping her dear friend reach her goals, she was filled with a sense of peace and contentment. Tohru was home, she realized. Hana knew in that moment as Tohru sat bathed in firelight that she would do anything to aid and protect Tohru.

"Well the tent's up." Arisa announced. "Dinner almost done?"

"Hai." Tohru affirmed, "Just let me pour the water over the noodles and we will be ready. I'm baking the yams for tomorrows breakfast."

The three girls ate and laughed and talked excitedly about the adventure they were about to embark on. They avoided the topic of the mystic they were on their way to see and instead focused their conversation on the boy's reactions when they saw Tohru again. They made up several scenarios each more ridiculous than the last. They smiled and joked until the moon hung high overhead. At last they cleaned their meal and retired for then night knowing they had yet another day of hiking ahead of them.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 Confinement**

_That same night at the Honke._

Kyo knew it was late by the position of the moon. Its light shone through the hole in the side of his hut. He sat with one leg raised, an arm draped over it, his orange hair now fell to his shoulders and it fell forward as he looked out the opening in his hut at the moon and stars shining above. It was the first time that whole year he felt a stirring of unease about his confinement. He didn't know what or why he just felt… uncomfortable.

True to his word, after Tohru disappeared Akito had him locked in the cat house. The first few weeks were the hardest as Kyo was forced to adjust himself to his new life. The hut was Spartan in its accommodations, a small oscillating fan moved the air around, even when the air was all hot from the summer or spring afternoon. For the first couple of months Akito had visited him regularly to taunt him. He'd even had a visit from his father; the man had come to gloat. He'd ignored his taunting in stoic silence and the man eventually went away. Kyo wasn't particularly affected by the visit; he had long ago stopped considering the man as his father. Shishou visited with him regularly. Kyo enjoyed his visits, they would spar in the little yard outside the hut.

Akito had attempted to stop them, but to Kyo's secret delight Kazuma had gone against the family head. Akito put a chain lock on the door. Kazuma had reacted with a violent fury unlike anything Kyo had ever seen before. Kazuma left only to return an hour later with a pair of chain cutters. He severed one of the links, ripping the chain off the door with astonishing fury and heaved the whole thing through the main window in Akito's quarters.

When Akito threatened to end his visits altogether Kazuma threatened to have the Honke and the family investigated by the police. Apparently locking people up was against the law. Akito had relented and her visits had actually reduced to about once a month.

She would take Kyo to the bathhouse and have him bathe her; she would brush his hair and tell him how lucky he was that she was there to take care of him. He was so lucky that she loved him. She was the only one who would ever love him in his long life. She vowed never to leave him. She tried to make him feel that he was unworthy of love; she made remarks about his natural form, how repulsive he was. Many of the things she said he secretly agreed with, but one thing he knew was a lie.

She was not the only one who would ever care for him.

He went to sleep every night with Kyoko's picture under his shirt tucked right next to his heart. It made him feel closer to _her._

To Tohru.

Kyo knew no matter what Akito said there was one more person in the world that cared for him. Every night he prayed that she was happy, and safe, and far, far from the Honke. Also, no matter how hard Akito tried, she could not break the will of his master, the man he thought of as his father.

Around the third month of his confinement He'd been unnaturally despondent and quiet when Shishou-san came to visit him.

"_Kyo, what is wrong?" Kazuma asked concern etched in every line on his face. Kyo shrugged listlessly in the dark room they sat in. The two of them were sharing the midday meal together._

"_Kyo… is there anything I can do… You don't have to stay here!" Kazuma snapped, somewhat harsher than he intended. Kyo did not respond. They finished the meal in silence. They moved to the small courtyard and Kazuma assumed his warm up stance, for the first time since he was a boy, Kyo did not quickly follow suit. Instead he raised his eyes to the sky and basked in the heat of the midday sun. Kazuma watched as a look of sensuous pleasure rolled across Kyo's face. Moments later Kyo returned to himself and began the warm up exercises the two always did together._

_After the warm ups they spent two hours sparring. Soaked with sweat they took a break, each having a water bottle, breathing heavily from the intense workout._

_Kazuma stared with concern at the withered looking form of his son. Kyo had lost every ounce of extra fat he had possessed before being locked up. His healthy tan had faded to a pasty white and his eyes were sunken and hollow. The despondence he had encountered upon arrival was gone, replaced by a melancholy acceptance._

"_Well, I need to get back to the dojo for evening classes Kyo." _

_Kyo smiled and turned to go back into his hut. But his legs stopped and once again he lifted his eyes to the sky, allowing the sunlight to bathe his face. _

"_You know, I can ask Akito to let me put in a window for you." Kyo lowered his head._

"_She'll never allow it. She takes away the sun as one more way to punish me for my existence."_

"_You'll never know Kyo, unless you try." As Kyo trudged wearily back into his little prison of darkness he lowered his head. _

"_Do what you like." He whispered softly, a defeated note in his voice._

_Kazuma had indeed done just that. When Akito refused to allow him to put a window in Kyo's hut, Kazuma simply punched a huge hole in the drywall._

"_There's your window my son. Enjoy the extra daylight, see you tomorrow." Kyo laughed aloud at his masters daring._

_Akito was of course furious. She'd spent the next hour ranting at him over Kazuma's insubordination. Kyo paid her little heed as he drowsily bathed in the sunlight. She caught his contented smile and struck him on the face. He now had a three and a half inch scar under his left eye where Akito's nail had scraped open his skin. Hatori didn't find out until a month after the incident and by then it was too late to stitch it up and avoid a scar. Kyo felt it was a small price to pay for sunlight during the daytime, and moonlight at night._

_Akito refused to have the hut repaired but Kyo didn't mind. Kazuma brought Kyo some ductape and heavy clear plastic to cover the hole during winters chill._

_Kyo had pulled his futon over to the hole so that the light of both sun and moon would fall on him where he slept. He spent most days waiting for Kazuma by reading books or doing exercises. He rigorously put himself through the motions of his martial arts stances. He did 300 inverted sit ups a day and he could do seventy-five pull-ups before collapsing in exhaustion._

He rarely saw the other members of the Juunishi. Yuki had been stopping by at least once a week for the first eight months until Haru sneaked into Kyo's hut one night and begged him to tell Yuki to stop.

"Please Kyo, tell Yuki not to come back anymore!" Hatsuharu begged. Kyo was confused, why did Hatsuharu care if Yuki came to see him once in a while?

"It's not like I want to see that damn rat! I could care less if he ever came again!" Despite Kyo's show of defiance, the truth was he hungered for companionship. He was so lonely during the hours he was awake that even the rat's company was preferable to being by himself.

"Then tell him to stop visiting you." Haru whispered firmly.

"Why?" Kyo asked irate. "I haven't seen you in eight months, the rat cares more about my well being then you, why does it matter?" Haru looked away. His jaw clenched and he remained stubbornly silent.

"Bah, then get away from me, I don't need you or want your company." Hatsuharu rose rigidly, his hands fisting at his side.

"You know something baka Neko, the next time our dear Yuki visits you, ask him to take off his shirt." Looking warily atHatsuharu's posture, hearing the angry note in his voice, Kyo knew Haru was dangerously close to going black.

"I…I will." Kyo promised. What could Haru be alluding to? Kyo thought about it, dread washing over him. Yuki had been a constant visitor once a week since his confinement for the past eight months except once when he missed three weeks. He never explained why he hadn't returned for so long, and Kyo was too proud to ask. He never wanted the rat to think he needed him or anything.

Yuki didn't return again for five weeks after Haru's visit but Kyo never forgot his conversation with Hatsuharu. When Yuki returned it was just after midnight, Yuki stayed up late and slept most of the day away, at least that was the explanation he had offered when he first came to visit Kyo. Kyo had never thought to question him.

"Baka Neko." Yuki bantered, a small smile on his face.

"Kuso Nezumi." Kyo greeted in return, a smile flashing over his face. He noted how stiffly Yuki stood. Yuki eased himself down at Kyo's side then offered him the meal of Salmon, Cod, and cocktail shrimp. Kyo took it and polished it off swiftly. Yuki watched the stars as Kyo ate. The silence was companionable. Not strained.

"Thanks, Rat"

"Not a problem cat."

As Kyo finished the snack he watched Yuki speculatively. Yuki was smiling gently, looking up at the night sky.

"What are you smiling at?" Kyo asked before he could stop himself. Yuki looked at Kyo, his Lavender eyes sparkling.

"Every time I see the stars I think of Honda-San." Kyo kept himself still. The rat continued. "She sleeps beneath these same stars we look at. I feel close to her when I can see them."

"I know what you mean." Kyo said softly, placing the empty platter on the ground and getting up from his legs-akimbo position to rest his hands on his knees. "During the day, when the sun shines on me its like her smile warming me. She was always so happy."

"Except when we were not." Yuki agreed.

"Do you remember that time at the lake house?" Kyo asked. Yuki grimaced at the memory.

"How could I forget? Akito came and monopolized everyone's attention. We were all so concerned about Honda-San being all alone."

"And she was so happy just spending time with me."

"Then when Akito had you go to her, and we were all so worried about her-"

They finished together, "Her only concern was for us and if we were alright." They were both silent for a few moments.

"Do you ever think about her promise?" Yuki asked softly. Kyo looked at him sharply, but Yuki wasn't looking at him. His head was resting on the door beam and he was gazing longingly toward the stars.

"More often than I should." Kyo whispered guardedly. "Why?" Yuki didn't look at him when he answered.

"I remember her promise every night. Akito-Sama does too. I remember, and I hope that Honda-San forgets her promise. I hope she forgets all of us. I hope that wherever she goes she will be happy and safe and far… far… from here." Kyo watched Yuki carefully, unease blossoming in his heart. He remembered what Haru had said.

"Yuki…"

"hmmm…"

Kyo couldn't believe he was about to ask him this. But he had an idea of what he would see he just needed confirmation.

"Yuki… take off your shirt." Kyo turned red, blushing at the incredulous look Yuki turned on him. "It's not like that you idiot. Just take it off." Yuki stood rigidly his eyes narrowing. He backed up a couple of steps. Kyo stood, following him.

"I think I should call it a night." Yuki intoned calmly.

"Not until you take off that shirt." Kyo stated firmly.

"Baka, it's not your business!"

"The hell it ain't! Yuki take off the goddamn shirt!" Yuki assumed a martial arts stance.

"You want it? You come and get it!" He spat. Kyo lunged at him. It was exhilarating, pitting himself against Yuki, the rat was swift and powerful, every blow felt like a hammer, but Kyo had been locked away for eight months without much else to do than exercise, increase his strength and hone his skills. Yuki was dodging more blows than he ever had before. In the end though it was never Yuki's lack of skill or Kyo's amount of it that mattered. It was Yuki's body that gave out. He was just a fraction too slow. Kyo took him down, pinning him to the ground and he ripped the thin linen top from Yuki's body.

If Kyo hadn't already been white from lack of sun every ounce of color he had would have drained from his face. Yuki shoved him off then stood regally, glaring scornfully at Kyo. Kyo could only gape in slack-jawed shock.

Yuki's entire torso was covered in lurid bruises. His back was criss crossed with healing scars and scrapes. A huge purple pool of bruised flesh rested at the base of his ribcage.

"Akito!" Kyo cried, his voice filled with pain and regret. "Akito did that to you?"

"Baka Neko!" Yuki spat, snatching his shirt from Kyo's slack hands. "I told you it wasn't your business."

"She does that to you because of me, doesn't she?" It came out as a pained whisper. Yuki paused. His dark eys met Kyo's reddish brown ones.

"She does this when she finds out her favorite has not been obeying her. She has forbidden every member of the zodiac to see you."

"Kuso Nezumi," Kyo whispered in anguish, the bruises flashing through his mind, "Why would you do that? Why tempt her wrath for me?" Kyo was incredulous. He and Yuki had never been close, never shared friendship, the only thing they ever had in common was mutual contempt for each other and Tohru. Yuki's Eyes locked on his, his breath rushing out on a tormented sigh.

"Because the only time I can feel close to her is when I am with you!" Kyo's eyes widened he couldn't look away from Yuki's haunted face. "She once told me I was better than Akito. She had such faith in me. Ha!" Yuki snorted derisively, "the man she thought I was, the man I want to be, would never allow you to be locked away alone. I want to be the man Tohru sees when she looks at me. I want to be that good, I want to care that much because she believes in me! So I come to see you. She begged me not to leave you alone. So I come. And when Akito finds out she goes half mad with rage. But I love Tohru! I would die to save her! The wrath of a God is nothing to that!" Kyo eyed Yuki with pity. Kyo more than any other member of the Juunishi knew what it was to be hated by your God. To feel your god's wrath directed at you, it was like having your heart broken, it was the desire to die. Judging by Yuki's condition, he had been there. And more than once- and for him, for Kyo.

Suddenly Kyo understood why Hatsuharu begged him to turn Yuki away. He understood that Yuki must have gotten caught and beaten that time he didn't visit for three weeks and that was why he hadn't been to see him in five. Haru must have come the night Yuki was beaten.

Yuki saw the look in Kyo's eyes, his nose curled back in a snarl and he heaved Kyo against the side of the cat house.

"Don't pity me! Don't you dare! I didn't do it for you, I did it for her!" He dropped Kyo and fell to his knees. "And I did it for me… I… I hurt… inside… I hurt… to see you here! I remember at Shigure's how you loved to sit on the roof for hours in the sun. I was so glad when Kazuma put that hole in the cat house. I came because I could never be a man worth being proud of if I allowed a… a comrade… to be locked away in the dark. What Akito does… what our family has always done to the cat… it's _wrong!"_ Kyo felt a curious stinging in his eyes. He and the rast just sat in silence. Then Yuki stood to collect himself.

"Yo," Kyo said, his tone of voice was bored, Yuki looked up, "Thank you Yuki. But don't come back, at least until you fully healed. Tohru might be proud of you but she'd be madder than Akito at a Sadie Hawkins dance if I let you get beaten up just for the pleasure of your company." Yuki smiled and nodded before walking away. Kyo hadn't seen him since. He assumed he was getting better.

This night Kyo sensed a change coming on. If he had been in his cat form his fur would have been standing on end. Change was riding the wind and it made Kyo uneasy. Finally he settled into a a quiet sleep, his last thought before slumber was of Tohru and how good it felt to have her run her fingers through his hair.

_He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming because he was on the roof and Akito would never allow him out of the cathouse to sunbathe on the roof. Also She was there. Tohru was lying above him; his head was resting on her lap. She stroked his hair gently; an angelic smile graced her features. A gentle breeze blew her hair around his face. He could almost smell her, magnolia blossoms and lemon-scented soap. As she gently scratched his head with her nails he couldn't resist calling her name_

_"Tohru…" He breathed._

Suddenly Kyo was grasping his head as agony lanced through him.

"You were dreaming about _her_!" A venomous voice hissed. Kyo's temple was throbbing. He felt like he had just been hit by a brick, he was disoriented, where was he? Why was Akito in his room?

"Akito…" He whispered hoarsely through the crashing waves of pain he felt. He could feel a huge knot rising up beneath his fingers.

"Well, let's just see if she will still come to you in your dreams when you are in your natural form!" There was a vicious light in Akito's eyes as she reached for his wrist. Kyo knew what she wanted. He was powerless to resist. She was his god. He whimpered at her displeasure. His stomach was in knots. She snatched off the bracelet that kept him in his human form.

A roiling brown cloud immediately began pouffing up from around him he felt his limbs expand and stretch and his body contorted into the form he hated. The smell was unbearable. Akito raised a delicate wrist to cover her nose, disgust apparent in her entire body. Kyo tried to tuck in his body and make it as small as he could as he always did when faced with his god's disgust.

His large yellow eyes would have been weeping with sorrow had they had tear ducts. He wished he could die, he wished there was a hole he could just crawl in and bury himself in, he knew Akito could not stand him, however when facing his God's revulsion anew it hurt just as if it were the first time. He knew Akito would never love him, but such palpable revulsion tore his heart out.

"You'll stay in this form until I decide to change you back. If Kazuma wants to see you like this- ugh, smell your stench, then he can, your disloyalty to me hurts Kyo!" In a rage Akito departed taking with her the bracelet that gave Kyo his human form. Kyo whimpered sucking in a shuddering sob.

He was hated by his God.

He wept softly to himself.

Even as he wept the wind spoke to him of more changes coming. He shuddered, weeping until once again sleep claimed him. Happily, his final thought was of Tohru and her gentle embrace the one time she had seen his true form.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 No price too high**

The three girls stared in silence at the shanty before them. A small tin building built into the side of the mountain. The building had no back exit, Arisa noted, one way in and one way out. A wobbly wooden chair sat in front of the door, some red peepers and a banana bushel hung from the overhang. The door was wide open but no one appeared to be home. Hana definitely appeared on edge. Her hair was standing on end from static, not a good sign.

"Hana-chan, it's alright. I'm sure Aodoriku-sama is just out collecting herbs or something. I don't mind waiting. We've come this far." Tohru spoke soothingly. She placed her hand on Hana's shoulder. Hana showed no sign of calming.

"I sense many unpleasant vibes. This place… it has a memory. I don't like being here." Hana gritted her teeth, and shifting her feet she began wringing her hands.

"Oh-ho!" Called a strangely accented voice. "I have some visitors. Tree lovely ladies come to see me in me house!" Hana whirled, dark sparks shooting from her eyes. A dark man with wild- wooly hair came walking toward them with a couple of dead rabbits in his hand. Tohru felt herself turn green as a fleeting thought of Momiji passed through her mind before she could dismiss it.

"Now missy- dey's no need for dat!" The man reached into the air with his free hand as if plucking a hair from the air. Hanajima gasped, her sparks went out. "Didjou be tinking dat an unknown power would be entering in my domain an I not be knowin' about it? Your power has no autority here!" The man walked toward his hut as if they had been discussing the weather.

"Hana, did he-" Arisa asked.

"I cannot sense my powers at all." Hanajima was slightly uncomfortable but at the same time a sense of wonder lit up her eyes. "I am… I am completely normal!" There was a note of delight in her voice. Tohru clasped her hands together.

"If he can mask your abilities Hana-chan, than I am sure he can help us with our problem!" Tohru dashed after the man.

"Tohru!" Arisa called out harshly. Tohru stopped and turned her head questioningly. "Tohru, be careful, I'm not sure I trust this guy." Tohru pursed her lips in impatience, her brow furrowing in puzzlement.

"But if I don't ask him for his help than why did we come all the way up here in the first place? Like it or not he's the only chance I have."

"I know, I'm just saying, maybe you shouldn't be so… so carefree around him." Tohru nodded and walked in a more subdued manner to the hut. She paused at the doorway knocking on the door.

"Come in Ganjame."

"H-h-hello, would you be Aodoriku-sama?" Tohru asked hesitantly. She swallowed convulsively as the dark man pulled out a wicked looking knife and hacked off the head of the first rabbit.

"Dat' I am, Ganjame."

"Ummm, I need your help." She began as Arisa and Hanajima flanked her on either side. Aodoriku smiled, his white even teeth brilliant in his black face, and he inclined his head, a gesture for her to continue. He proceeded to peel back the skin off the rabbit using the knife as an aid when the skin got stuck to the meat from the tendons. Tohru tried not to look.

"I need to be protected from someone's power, unless I have protection a man will erase my memories, and I need a way to break a curse that binds my friends to a human who is also their god." Aodoriku put down the rabbit and his knife. He picked up a piece of cloth and began wiping the rabbit's blood off his hands; his smile was gone replaced by a serious and calculating look.

"You be speaking of the Sohma curse and the memory wipe o' the Dragon."

"Yes." Tohru answered simply. Aodoriku approached her, his hands still had small flecks of meat beneath the fingernails and he had not completely wiped away the blood. He lifted one hand to Tohru's hair. With his greasy, bloody finger he pushed back a lock that had fallen over her shoulder. His eyes held hers.

"And what do ye be offerin' me as payment Ganjame?" He asked softly. Tohru wet her lips uncomfortable beneath his stare but she could not look away. Before she could answer Hanajima snatched his hand and flung it away from Tohru with surprising strength. The air hummed a little. Aodoriku looked at her in surprise.

"We have money." Hanajima said firmly her eyes flashing a warning.

"A demon, a warrior and an angel descend upon me at me home an I am to grant them powerful magiks for money. No, I tink' not."

"B-b-but, if not money than what?" Tohru stuttered in a panic.

"Forget it Tohru." Arisa began. She moved to place her arms around Tohru but Tohru flung her arms away violently.

"No!" She cried. She threw herself at the feet of the mystic and bowed her head.

"Please! Please, Aodoriku-sama, I do not know what the price will be, but no price is too high. Yuki and Kyo and Momiji and maybe even the others, they are counting on me. I made a promise. When someone makes a promise they have to do everything they can to try to keep it. And so, I want to keep my promise that I made. If it is in my power to grant it, I will pay your price. So please, Aodoriko-sama, please help me break the curse that binds my friends to Akito. Help me protect my mind from Hatori-san." Aodoriku stared at the girl at his feet a self-satisfied grin curling across his face. He could smell the innocence on her. Many powerful members of the demon world traded on mortal innocence. This girl was purity incarnate. He opened his mouth to speak when there was a flash of lightning. He froze and a chill slid along his spine.

Thunder roared a warning right before an arc of lightning slammed into his house. It split his roof and sent the table where the dead rabbits lye splintering into pieces. The smell of burnt wood and charred flesh rose from his home. He stared in shock. So did Arisa and Tohru.

"I will pay your price mystic. Give Tohru what she needs and I will pay the price in her stead." Hanajima's voice was hollow and calm. Aodoriku stared at the raven-haired beauty. His banking of her powers had vanished as if it were nothing, a destructive power rolled off her in waves. His eyes lit with a greedy hunger and his hands trembled. Even more than mortal innocence many demons lusted for channels into the human world, they desired vessels of power. This girl had both innocence and power.

His voice trembled with excitement, "A year of service. You will be mine; you will do all dat I command. Agree aloud and my help is hers."

"No! Hana-chan, I will pay whatever he asks, it is not for you to pay this price!" Tohru was beside herself with guilt. It had never occurred to her that the mystic would want more than money. Hanajima's eyes never left the mystic's face when she replied.

"No Tohru. This is my gift to you. You will accept it."

"But Hana-chan-"

"I will not serve you. Not until Tohru succeeds. I am sworn to her side until her quest is complete. Can a bargain be struck?" She regally questioned. Hana's back was ramrod straight as she glared icily into the eyes of a man who desired more of her than mere service. What he wanted she knew not but whatever his dark purposes she would never let him get his hands on Tohru. When he looked at Tohru with such a light of cunning malice in his eyes Hanajima knew she had to help Tohru or something dear and precious inside her would be destroyed.

"I be taking a huge risk letting you go. Even with my help there is no sure ting dat your girl here will succeed."

"If she fails then your help was worthless." Aodoriku was silent for a moment.

"De deal is dis. You will return within one year. Whedder she succeed or fail you return in one year. If she fail in dat time you are free but if she succeed or still in de process of her quest you will belong to me for one year. Agree aloud an the spirits are witness to your oat'!"

Tohru was uncertain about what exactly Aodoriku wanted from Hana-chan but she knew it was not good.

"No! I reject this payment! I will pay for my own aid or not at all!" She rose to her feet, her hands fisted at her side. "I will not allow Hana-chan to do this for me."

"I agree." Hanajima intoned. There was a clap of thunder. Pebbles lifted and danced on the ground as the earth beneath their feet shook.

"It is done!" Aodoriku proclaimed.

"No!" Tohru cried. "I said I do not accept this! I won't accept your aid then!" She cried.

"Fine but in one year dis girl be mine Ganjame." Hanajima grabbed Tohru by the arm and pulled her to the side.

"Tohru, I know you do not understand what it is that I have just done but please! Take all the help you can get from him." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Do not let my sacrifice be in vain." Tohru jerked away from Hanajima, hurt sparkling in her eyes.

"I never asked you to do this!" She cried softly.

"You never would." Hanajima answered with a soft smile. "Dear Tohru, what is done is done. You made a promise. We must free Kyo and Yuki. You cannot bear to live in a world without your Sohma's. I cannot bear to live in a world where my Tohru is not safe and happy. The day Kyoko died Arisa and I made a vow to protect you and look after you. You have made your promises and I," She cupped Tohru's face in her palm, "I have made mine."

Tohru sniffed, but nodded. Arisa remained silent, her entire body was tense and strained, she was clearly uncomfortable with all the magic.

Tohru turned to Aodoriku and in a hard voice that slightly shocked her friends demanded, "What have you got that can help me." Aodoriku laughed.

"To break de bond and de curse you will need powerful magic. To sever de bond would only kill your friends. The bond must be transferred or de curse made more bearable by changing de nature of dey God. I do have something dat may help but how will depend on you." Aodoriku pulled down a gourd that was lying on a topmost shelf in the back of his hut. It was about the size of a liter bottle of water and a waxy brown color.

"In here I have an ancient spirit. She will merge wit you. However you will have to fight for control. If you do not have de will den she will own you and your personality may be gone. Dey is much danger involved." A black bolt of lightning arced from Hanajima to Aodoriku's chest sending the dark man flying into the back of his shack. A plume of dust rose from the debris he landed in.

"This was not part of our deal. I will not allow Tohru to be harmed!" Her eyes were dark and dangerous as she advanced on the man. Aodoriku raised a hand in protest.

"What you ask for is power, no power can be attained wit' out great risk. Dis' be her best chance. Also wit' de Jinn as a part o' her De dragon will no be able to erase her memories. In order for his gift to work it must lock on de mind o de personality he be trying to erase. Wit' two in Ganjame's body he will no be able to hypnotize and erase the mem'ries o' de one because de 'oder it will take over."

"How will this jinn help me break the curse." Tohru asked firmly.

"You cannot take de' bond it must be freely gi'ben to you. Dis' be not easy. De' God o' de Zodiac, he can be cruel and de' Juunishi will still lub' him. Each cursed member in life must transfer dey loyalty to you. If dis' es not possible den de God must be de one to change in order to relinquish de hold on de' cursed ones. De jinn can help you as it chooses, but you get tree wishes. Howeber, none o' de wishes can directly affect de God. So choose carefully. After tree wishes de' jinn will be free and you will no longer have its protection."

"Tohru!" Arisa cried, "don't do this, he's saying if you take this thing inside you that it could destroy who you are."

"If I don't," Tohru began, "then Hana-chan will have made a huge sacrifice for nothing. Hatori will erase my memories, and Kyo will be locked up. Forever." Arisa swallowed. Hanajima said nothing. They both knew what Tohru would do. Her choice had been made from the moment they set foot on the mountain. Tohru would do what she had to in order to free her family. Just as Hanajima had done what was necessary to protect Tohru.

There was no price too high.

Tohru accepted the gourd.

"You must open it up and drink down its contents." Aodoriku said.

Tohru did as instructed.

In a single moment everything changed.

Authors Note: Sorry about the badly written accent. I was hearing the principal of the highschool on Ranma 1/2 english version. Picture Sebastian the crab if the ranma reference is unclear. I'm not explaining his origins because its unnecessary. People cross race lines and make babies all the time I just picture a Jamaican voo doo doctor fell in love with an Asian priestess or something. Ganjame references Ganja root, weed to the uninformed as in Tohru was smoking or good enough to smoke or so smoking fine she got him high.

I apologize for being a review whore. If I know people are reading I am motivated to keep going. Also If you could mention just a one liner something you liked or didn't like as opposed to simply write more. Or you like it. I want the story to be good, to be enjoyable. But writing Tohru is hard, she is so… good… and humble. Anyway please review the story. I will write faster with reviews than I will without them.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 Jinn**

Tohru was no longer aware. A struggle was taking place inside her. Saki felt her friend's aura winking in and out. Arisa ran to Tohru's side the moment she began slipping to the floor. Tohru's eyes were wide and vacant. She was breathing but unresponsive.

"You sonuvabitch!" Arisa cried, rage in her eyes, "What have you done to her!" Hanajima just stared in shock.. Aodoriku was unfazed.

"Dey is a war raging inside o' your friend. If she be strong den she will come to momentarily. If her mind be a weak 'ting, den you will soon meet de jinn."

_Tohru looked around in fear. The tinkling sound of laughter seemed to come at her out of the whiteness. Everything was white, as far as she could see. She seemed to be alone, however she sensed someone else with her. The laughter came again, it whispered past her ear and she whirled around, raising her hands nervously._

"_wh…who's there?" The laughter came again, a menacing note entering the disembodied voice._

"_How delicious. The dark one didn't tell you about me did he?"_

"_Are… are you the jinn? The one who can help me?" Tohru asked hopefully. _

"_Help you? Oh no darlin', I'm not going to help you, I'm going to become you. It's been centuries since I last had a body, and yours is… well its perfect. You are well formed and finely proportioned with a great deal of strength in your limbs. I am pleased with my new host. But you, I am afraid will have to go."_

"_What do you mean?!" Tohru cried out._

"_I mean dear one," And here the voice fell to a sinister whisper, "I mean there is only room for one of us in here so you will have to go to sleep so that I may come out and play." The brilliance of the white-space became dimmer._

_All around Tohru it felt as if the shadows were pressing down on her. Unable to stand from the increasing pressure her legs buckled and she fell to the ground. Her lids were getting heavy. She was so tired. She tried to fight it, to maintain her awareness but she felt herself going out. Like a candle in a brisk wind she felt the flame of her spirit flicker and dim. She couldn't give up! Yuki, Kyo! They were counting on her. _

"And Tohru mutti has this love for Momiji? This love that never dies and always finds a way…."_ A vision of Momiji smiling with such trust into her eyes flashed before her._

"_Mo…mi…ji…kun…" Tohru whispered brokenly, her eyes snapping open, before drifting closed again._

"You have made me into a better person, Honda-San… Your kindness has saved me Honda San…"

"_Yu..ki-kun!" She cried out struggling to push herself upright. Somehow she had fallen supine to the ground and she had to struggle just to raise her head above her elbows. She saw Yuki smiling up at her with sadness hidden behind that smile._

"I want to be the kind of man you can be proud of…" _She remembered Kyo's words._

"_Kyo…" she protested weakly._

"_Shhhhh." Came the voice of the jinn. " Just relax. Sleep."_

"_Kyo…" She cried out again, tears falling from her eyes._

"_Be peaceful." Came the voice yet again. This time a slender arm cradled her head in a soft lap. "Let the darkness hold you."_

"_Kyo…" Tohru protested again._

_He was all alone. Trapped in the dark. She was his only hope. And she was fading. Tohru knew if she let the darkness claim her she would never resurface again and Kyo and Yuki would live and die slaves to Akito's will. It didn't really matter so much to her if she fell into the dark forever. But she didn't want Kyo to be trapped there as well. _

"_Kyo!" She wailed loudly. She focused all her energy on fighting. She had to fight. For her family! For Yuki and Momiji. And for Kyo! A dark red haze began pushing back the encroaching night. The voice of the jinn gasped in surprise as Tohru struggled to her feet. Tohru could taste the jinn's fear. The red light pulsated and with a wail like a fire siren rejected the shadows trying to swallow it. When Tohru raised furious eyes to meet those of the Jinn the red fury coalesced into the shape of a butterfly flapping its wings, before fading out and returning the world to its pure white splendor._

"_I will not give up." Tohru cried aloud in a voice strong with conviction. " I have learned to be strong. I have learned to fight for what I want. And what I want is Kyo and Yuki. I want to be with Momiji and I want to cook supper for Shigure and Hatori. I want to see Hiro grow to become a man who will protect Kisa. I want to be friends with Kagura and Rin and help them find happiness. I want my family back!" Tohru's hair began moving erratically, the power of her spirit lifting it up and around her. A shimmering light began forming around her, the power of her will overtaking the white space. " I will not be stopped by you. I will not be stopped by Akito. I will not be stopped by anyone. I am Tohru Honda, daughter of the Red Butterfly, I will fight a God and brave a mystic to save the people I love, I will not be defeated by you jinn." The silhouette of the Jinn rose from the ground. Tohru glared at the creature with hard eyes. She was slightly taken aback at the jinn's appearance. She looked just like Tohru, but her hair and eyes were red and her skin had a pinkish cast to it. She gazed seriously at Tohru._

"_I will not be enslaved again. I would rather die!" The Jinn's knees trembled but she lifted her chin in defiance. "You need me or I wouldn't be here, but I will not be silent. As long as we are one it's my life too." Tohru's eyes softened._

"_I do not wish to enslave you jinn. I need your help."_

"_I know what you need. I am in your mind. You get three wishes. I do not kill. I will not do harm. I cannot make people fall in love with you. I cannot hurt the God Akito directly. I do not wish to hurt anyone. I want to be free! I want to live!"_

_Tohru smiled gently. "Then come to me jinn. Let us live. Together." Tohru opened up her arms. A Golden butterfly appeared behind her, gently flapping wings of gilded light. Tohru was bathed in a heavenly glow. The jinn looked upon her new host and experienced an emotion that she hadn't felt in centuries. Hope. Tentatively she stepped into Tohru's embrace. Tohru Honda wrapped her arms around the jinn and held her close._

_She was no longer alone._

\Tohru moaned and blinked her eyes.

"Tohru-kun!" Arisa cried from above her- before practically smothering her in a relieved hug. The girl's face was a mask of fierce anger and grateful relief.

"Tohru!" Saki cried falling to her knees to embrace the girl. The three held each other for several heartbeats.

"Tohru," Saki began, "Tohru, are you well. Do.. do you have what you need." Tohru's eyes changed in an instant from blue to red. A smile of jubilation crossed her face. In a voice that was Tohru but was not she answered.

"She does. I will aid this woman."

"Let me speak to Tohru!" Arisa demanded. Tohru's crimson eyes flashed back to blue.

"I'm alright Uo-chan." Tohru smiled. "The Jinn is here with me, we are…communicating. It is very strange but… I… I like her. She reminds me of you Uo-chan." Tohru grinned happily.

"Den my part of dis bargain is done." Aodoriku stated.

The girls glared at the man. Tohru's eyes flashed scarlet for barely a second. There was a loud bang and then a whooshing sound. The earth began to rumble beneath them. Tohru's red eyes were locked on the Mystic, a small half smile on her face

"I think we should leave this place. NOW!" Hanajima commanded. She grabbed Tohru's arm and Arisa's as well; yanking them up she pulled them outside. Just in time too. The second the three girls got out of the hut the earth beneath it shifted belching a fireball from the gaping maw that appeared.

"Dammit!" Aodoriku shouted as he leapt from the hut. The hungry earth, after incinerating the hut, swallowed it whole the crack in the surface eased back together and only a blackened patch of earth marked where the hut had stood only moments ago. "Get out of here. I know dis was da work of dat' damn jinn! You," he shouted, leveling a large finger at Hanajima, "I will see you in one year. Now be gone! Ay-ya me! Me house is gone." The three girls left the mystic bemoaning the loss of his residence and began the trek home. Tohru had a small smile on her face. Her eyes were blue again.

"Tohru," Arisa asked, " was that you?" Tohru shook her head.

"It was Jinn. She has been a prisoner for a long time. She was tricked by that mans ancestor and kept caged in that gourd for three hundred years. Her last owner was an evil man who had her do some very bad things. He promised her freedom when she was done but in the end he tricked her, trapping her in that gourd. The earth swallowing his home was not the worst she wished to do to Aodoriku- sama."

"Then why didn't she do her worst?" Arisa asked. Tohru nimbly avoided a fallen tree as she answered.

"I asked her to restrain her fury. Aodoriku is not a nice man, but he is not his ancestor. He should be judged on his own merits and not held responsible for the misdeeds of others."

"Then why did she take his house?" Hanajima asked.

"Why, because of what he did to you Hana-chan." Tohru answered with a frown. "Jinn will not tell me why Aodoriku wants you Hana-chan, but she knows, and I can sense that he is an evil man. I will not let you take this burden for me."

"We have a year before we need to worry about that Tohru-kun." Hanajima soothed.

"So does this jinn have a name?" Arisa asked. Tohru nodded smiling, her eyes held a far away look. "She does but she will not share it. A jinn's name is its only act of free will when in service. It is a jinn's right to keep secret or reveal their name to a master. She has not chosen to reveal her name to me. So we will call her jinn."

"Are you… okay Tohru?" Arisa asked again. Tohru stopped walking and turned to Arisa, placing one hand on her arm in a friendly squeeze.

"I am me, Uo-chan. I am just no longer alone, in here." She grinned before knocking on the side of her head. "Now I have three very good friends, Hana-chan, Uo-chan, and jinn-san." The girls continued on. Tohru was excited. She knew that in the next couple of days she would be reunited with Kyo and Yuki and the others. Her joy was contagious and pretty soon all three girls were smiling and laughing. Hana and Uotani were both so relieved to see the old Tohru back in full force that they pushed their own doubts to the back of their minds.

_I do not know if I yet consider you my friend Tohru-san._ Jinn muttered guardedly.

_It's okay jinn-san, I know it will take you some time, you have been hurt and you are afraid. But, while we are together, you are not alone. I am so thankful to you for helping me. I know that together we will be able to find a way to rescue Kyo and the others!_

_You're not mad because I won't tell you my name?_ Jinn snapped almost belligerently.

_No. You have explained to me about being jinn. Your name is all you have. I would never want to take from you what you would not willingly give. It is okay for jinn-san to be jinn-san as long as she wants. Friends don't always have to tell each other everything._

Jinn perked up. _ Have you ever kept secrets from them? _She asked referring to Uo and Hana.

Tohru smiled sadly._ Yes. To protect the Sohma's I kept the Zodiac curse a secret from them for four years._

_But you finally told them? _It was more a question than a statement. Tohru nodded.

_Sometimes you discover there are more important things than secrets. When the people you love are in danger, to protect them you will tell any lie, spill any secret do anything you have to do to save them._

_Like you did to save Kyo?_

_And Yuki and the others._ Tohru affirmed.

_But mainly Kyo. _Jinn taunted.

"Yes." Tohru said aloud. Arisa and Hana looked back at Tohru curiously. She just smiled at them. Soon she would be with them again. She wondered how they were.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 Brothers**

Hatori ran one trembling hand through his midnight hair; with the other he plugged a cigarette between his lips. He was exhausted. And in spite of his best efforts he was going to lose his patient. His heart broke at the thought and his knees wobbled, unable to stop his spent body he fell into the wall and then rested wearily as he took a long drag on his cigarette.

For the past several days he had struggled mightily to forestall deaths rapid approach to the honke. He cut into his patient's body with all the skill afforded to him from the privileged institution, which he had attended. His hands had been sure, his fingers swift as bone fragments were removed from the punctured lung. He'd stitched the torn organ with a light hand and sewn the wound closed with a finesse the finest surgeons in the land would have envied; but to no avail.

In the end it wasn't the broken rib or the torn lung, the fractured arm or large lurid bruises that would claim his patient. It wasn't the infection of old wounds left to fester and neglected for too long that seeped unnoticed by a worn doctor into his patient's bloodstream. It was the spirit, beaten too hard, driven too far that had retreated to a place Hatori could not reach. The spirit was broken. All that could be done by medical science had been done. The will to live was what was missing.

With Hatori was one other. Upon the floor at his patient's bedside, a form with sorrow and despair written in his long elegant lines draped two lean arms over the still and silent form beneath the bedclothes.

Aya's pale skin was white as snow, his face drawn and gaunt in grief. Eyes that normally sparkled with irrepressible mischief and delight were dead of all light. Aya just sat at the bedside. Tears ran from ducts that should have been long dry. He did not sob. He did not cry out. Tears simply fell. Hatori was helpless to aid his friend, especially when his own heart echoed the tragic sentiment evident in Ayame's pain.

A rattling breath, a simple exhalation of air pierced the tomblike silence, letting both doctor and brother know, Yuki still lived.

Akito was inconsolable in her grief. Shigure was locked up with her at that very moment attempting to calm her, as he had been since she discovered what her rage had done.

When Akito discovered Yuki had again ventured to the cat house against her orders she went crazy. Weeping hysterically she beat Yuki with a vengeance. As usual Yuki did not fight back.

She was his God.

He loved her beyond reason even as his heart stilled in terror thinking of her.

She struck his unguarded chest, already covered in bruises. He had fallen to his knees. She beat his back bloody until the cane she favored snapped in half. She then rained blow after blow upon his crumpled form, kicking him, crying out all the while at what she deemed his betrayal.

In her mad frenzy she stomped on his ribcage. There was an audible snap unlike anything Yuki had yet experienced. He found to his horror he was barely able to breathe and unable to move or speak so piercing was the pain. When he stopped moving Akito stormed out.

Hatori's heart ached as he imagined Yuki's terror, left alone, in the dark all night, lying in the blood that poured from his mouth with each tiny hiccupping wheeze. He was left there in his own blood and pain until Akito returned to him, calm after her rage, perhaps feeling somewhat guilty.

When Akito returned to Yuki the next day she turned white at the evidence of her brutality. Yuki lay comatose in a puddle of his own blood. He was unresponsive. Akito, panic-stricken ran the length of the Honke to get Hatori herself. When Akito felt such panic every member of the Juunishi felt it. Hatori was halfway to her side when she found him. Unable to speak clearly se merely said the name.

"Yuki!" Hatori immediately called a nurse to bring him his emergency medical supply bag even as he sprinted at his God's side to the place where Yuki lay. His face became a cool mask even as he cringed inside at what Akito had done. He gently turned the young man to his side and began inspecting the damage.

"Akito please, use your power to keep him in his human form." Hatori requested briskly. Akito nodded barely able to speak. Moments later Shigure and Ayame appeared. Shigure took one look at Yuki and immediately swept Akito into his embrace as if to shield her from the sight of the damage she had caused. Ayame saw his baby brother and cried out at the sight of his brutalized form.

"Yuki!" His name was a prayer and a requiem of shock and despair. He leapt to his brother's side ready to scoop his fragile, broken body into his arms and heal him with all the strength in him.

"Aya! No!" Hatori shouted. He thrust himself between the grief stricken brother and his patient. Ayame's arms flew past him as he struggled to move through Hatori.

"Let me go Tori! Yuki is in desperate need of my strength!" His eyes were glued to the still form of his brother. He shoved Hatori away, but the doctor easily wrestled him to the side. Enraged, eyes blinded with tears Ayame made a fist and attempted to strike the offending doctor out of the way. Hatsuharu who had just arrived stared numbly at Yuki from the doorway.

"Hatsuharu, help me restrain him! If he moves Yuki he may very well kill him!" Hatsuharu raised eyes glazed with panicked tears to Hatori before pulling Ayame aside as if he were no more than a rag doll. Ayame fell backwards into Hatsuharu's arms, his eyes never leaving his brother. Hatori grasped Ayame's head between his hands forcing the man to look up into his eyes and away from the copse-like stillness of his fallen sibling.

"Aya! Aya! Listen to me! Listen to me dammit. If you don't your brother is going to die!" Hatori didn't know the extent of Yuki's internal injuries, but he was fairly certain the damage was bad, he was not certain they were fatal, but unless Ayame calmed down enough to let him check, he wouldn't know.

Ayame looked into Hatori's eyes. His arms went slack so Hatsuharu released him. Ayame remained slumped on the floor, his head locked between the doctor's hands. He raised his arms slowly and grasped the doctor's wrists in his hands. He stared deep into Hatori's eyes.

"Tori! Tori please… save him! You must Tori, you must save my brother Yuki. For I love him so you see and…" Ayame's eyes slid away from Hatori to briefly look at his brother before returning to Hatori's gaze so sure and strong, "…he has not forgiven me yet. Please Tori, make him well!"

"I'll do what I can Aya, but you must stay calm and allow me to do my work." Ayame nodded mutely. Satisfied he had his cooperation Hatori rose to his feet and returned to Yuki's side. His nurse arrived and that was when it began. For twelve hours Hatori worked on Yuki. He gave him fluids, he sewed him up, he checked his injuries, and bathed him. But the antibiotics were not strong enough and Yuki was allergic to the stronger kind, which swelled his bronchial tubes causing him to asphyxiate.

That had been three days ago. If Yuki's will were just a little bit stronger he might be able to pull out of it but with all he had been through Hatori doubted Yuki had any desire to live left in him.

Now, they all merely waited for death.

Haru sat mute on the porch stoop, unable to look at Yuki, so swollen, and helpless, and dying, unable to leave. Rin sat at his side unable to console him, unwilling to leave. It was the most open about her feelings she had been since before Akito had shoved her out the second story window.

Aya had not spoken a word since his desperate plea to Hatori to save his little brother. Hatori finished his cigarette, flicking the bud carelessly into the grass. He slowly advanced toward Ayame's crumpled form.

"Aya," He began. Ayame's hands, which had been gently stroking the air above Yuki's porcelain cheek, stilled but otherwise he showed no reaction to Hatori's presence. "Aya, I'm sorry. I can't…" His voice stilled unable to move past the lump in his throat. He coughed, clearing his throat. He tried again "I can't… save him." Ayame remained motionless for a heartbeat, and then resumed his tender ministrations. "Aya, whatever you want to say to him… it would be best if you said it soon. He may not respond. But he may hear you." Ayame ignored him and finally Hatori turned and walked away unable to hold in his own sorrow any longer. He left the building and rounded the corner. He put his face into the side of the small house and opened his mouth wide in a silent scream, the force of his feelings nearly bringing him to his knees. Air blew from his mouth in a rush of raw sorrow.

The concrete, cool beneath his palms became washed in the warm brine of his despair. He heaved again, an expiation of air in that guttural quiet cry made by men unused to showing their emotions but unable to restrain them in such times. He pressed his cheek to the cool cement and wept like a child.

Ayame rested his cheek lightly on Yuki's cool hand. There were several monitors connected to his tiny brothers delicate form and wires criss crossed paths beneath his bedclothes and above his skin. The sound of soft beeps alerted him to Yuki's slow vitals. They were weak.

Aya smiled sadly. An expression never meant to alight upon his features.

His soul was dead.

When Yuki died he would take with him the light inside Ayame's own heart. Without Yuki's tentative smile, without his angry glances, without those fleeting instances of connection made and lost in the transition of one moment to the next when Aya felt so close to redemption that he teetered upon the brink of elation and wonder, Ayame would be empty. Color and light and hope. These were the embodiments of his baby brother. And now he was dying. Sadness was too trite a word for what Ayame felt.

"I will go with you, little brother." Ayame whispered tenderly. "I will follow you into darkness that you will no longer be alone." Ayame wept heated tears upon Yuki's hand as he spoke gently, staring intently at the brother he loved. "I made a mistake- that time, when I was young. You needed me and I walked away. You did not exist for me. I remember what I did to you. I watched in shame from the shadows, I even passed you by many times. You never reached for me again. I wanted to be the kind of brother who would love you. I wanted to be loved by you. I wanted…" Ayame paused lost in thought. His heart was so full of feelings he could not find the right words. " I wanted forgiveness." His hand reached out to push back a silver hair from his brother's face then he wrapped his arms around Yuki's arm and cried.

Aya had never been there for Yuki when he was small. He resolved that his brother would not be alone in death. It was the job of big brothers to take care of the little brothers that came after them. Ayame stood. He knew where Tori kept the narcotic pain medication. He always put it in the false bottom of the leather satchel he used for emergencies. Aya pulled out a bottle of what he needed. Mechanically he moved to pour himself a glass of water. He took half the contents of the bottle letting the rest fall to the floor. His hair trailed behind him a silver cloud as he returned to his brother's side. Aya smiled and as gently as he could, climbed into the bed beside his brother.

With the utmost reverence and tenderness he wrapped his slender arms around Yuki, lay his head next to his brother's so he could feel his hair soft against his cheek and waited for death to come.

"I love you Yuki." He whispered softly. He closed his eyes. "I will always be there for you. I'll never leave you again." Ayame hoped the others would understand. He felt a twinge of worry for Hatori but the weight of his brother resting in his arms soon dispelled that.

Time continued slipping by. One moment disappeared into the next. His thoughts were becoming blurry. Aya opened his eyes one last time, almost immediately they tried closing again. He kissed his brothers hair, squeezing him one final time.

"Yuki… I'm sorry…"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 Love Unconquered**

Tohru was restless.

They had returned to Hana's house that morning. Tohru was full of energy and so she could not sleep. Hana-chan and Uo-chan had cautioned her against going to the Sohma house alone but they were unable to stay up with her.

_We could just go for a walk._ A mischievous voice whispered in her mind.

Tohru found herself warming to Jinn more and more each day. Sometimes it was hard to tell where her own thoughts ended and Jinn's began.

_That's a good idea._ Tohru thought back. She stepped out of the house. She was only going to cruise the block, maybe do a bit of light jogging to burn off some of the extra energy she felt. She was wearing a black baby doll shirt with a pair of black shorts, both borrowed from Hana-chan after her mother stole all of Tohru's clothes declaring them unfit for wearing. A red ribbon ran around the bodice of the dress emphasizing her slight curves. The sleeves were lightly puffed drawing attention to the elegant lines of her shoulders and lean, toned arms. She had a black pair of sneakers that had belonged to Megumi once when he was younger, they were like new and fit her feet nearly perfectly, and they were only slightly loose

Really she had only meant to run around the block but mere moments after beginning her trek Tohru found herself leaping fences and cutting through people's yards, heading for the Sohma estates. It was as if she were being called. And for some reason the summons was becoming more urgent.

She ran swiftly and silently. She pulled herself up one side of a retention wall, ran several feet along its length before leaping across to the other side where it narrowed. Her shoes hit the grass hard and her knees buckled, however she smoothly caught herself before she fell, regained her footing and continued on her run. Strangely she was not the least bit winded when she came to the outer gates of the Sohma estates.

_Not so strange._ Chirped a voice in her head.

Tohru grinned and nodded. A large plum tree with branches reaching in supplication toward the heavens grew conveniently alongside the eastern wall of the Honke. Tohru grinned and with a running leap managed to catch one of the lower branches. She paused, grunting softly as she adjusted her grip. By flexing her torso a few times she managed to swing her legs up and around the branch so that they joined her arms. She paused again for breath.

_A little help would be nice._ She thought in exasperation.

_You wouldn't want me to do all the work, would you?_ Jinn queried smugly.

In truth it was all she could do to restrain herself from lifting Tohru over the wall. She was in Tohru's mind and Tohru thought of nothing but the Sohma's. She dreamt of them. She worried over them; they were as much a part of her as breathing. In truth Jinn was very excited about meeting people such as the one's Tohru fantasized about at such length.

With a heaving grunt Tohru pulled her body in close to the branch and wiggled around to the topside. She then stood nimbly and reached for the next, and the next until she towered over the ground at twenty feet in the air. She inched along a branch and then leapt toward the wall, which rested a mere four or five feet away from the tree branch.

In spite of her training and her physical conditioning she very nearly missed the wall. Her fingers desperately gripped the concrete blocks. She slammed her elbow and tore skin from her palms, but just barely managed to hang on. With her eyes clenched tight in concentration she hauled herself up and over the wall. She dropped to the ground, allowing her legs to collapse and rolled across the ground in a heap. Her hands and arm stung where she had scraped them and her legs throbbed from the jolt of falling from such a ridiculous height. But she was in.

She giggled, elated. Suddenly a dark shadow loomed over her blocking the starlight.

"Who are you?" A voice demanded. She knew that voice.

"Kureno-san!" Tohru gasped and stood. She began furiously brushing off the dirt that had clung to her clothing when she fell.

"Tohru Honda!" Kureno gasped. Tohru was unsure what to do. She didn't really want to be found out yet. Her hands slid to the small pouch she had tied to her belt loop, they were already readying a needle even as she bowed to Kureno. A simple stick just above the clavicle on the left side of his neck would put him in a restful slumber.

"Hai. How is everyone? Uo-chan is well." She murmured. Kureno seemed to age, as he stood silhouetted in the starlight.

"I should send for Hatori right now. I should summon Akito. I should not do what I am about to do." Kureno took a deep breath. Tohru paused. Her needles were ready; it would take merely a second. She was curious as to what Kureno meant.

"Come with me Honda-San. There is… someone who you will wish…" He paused as if swallowing. Tohru had the strangest thought that he was trying not to cry. He gestured for her to follow. She did.

_He's nice._ Jinn thought.

_I know._ Tohru returned. Kureno lead her to a small house. Rin and Hatsuharu were waiting. Their eyes widened as recognition flared to life in their worried orbs.

"Honda-San!" Haru gasped, leaping from the porch he lifted her into the air and spun her around. "It's the answer to a prayer!" He gasped reverently as he put her down. Without releasing her he jerked her into the house and lead her down a hallway past the kitchen and living quarters into a small room. His hands gripped hers in a clammy but firm grasp. She would have smiled but she was beginning to feel an uneasy sensation. As she crossed the threshold onto the bedroom she stopped. Haru released her hands and stepped aside.

She gasped, an icy dread creeping over her. Yuki lay in bed, as still as death covered in bruises a freshly stitched wound on his chest. Ayame lay wrapped around his brother like a cocoon.

"Ayame?" Hatsuharu called, concern ringing in his voice. Just then Rin came racing into the room.

"Haru!" She cried her dark hair whipping around her. "Haru, get Hatori I think Ayame may have done something foolish!" She held an empty bottle of pills in her hand. Haru's eyes widened in dismay, before he raced from the room. Kureno was already at Ayame's side tapping him on the face, begging him tearfully to open his eyes, to wake up.

"What happened?!" Tohru begged, her voice ragged, not quite completely her own. Kureno's eyes jerked to her face before he answered.

"Akito… she punishes Yuki for disobeying her."

"Akito did this?" Tohru whispered as she stepped closer to the still form of her beloved and his brother. Had she worked so hard, sacrificed so much, had Hana-chan sacrificed herself only to arrive too late?

Only to arrive just in time to watch Yuki die. Tohru's eyes already raining tears flashed with ruby fire.

_I can help them Tohru. Give me control._ Tohru nodded. Jinn stepped forward. Wind with no source swirled around her body. A golden glow began to radiate from her center. She raised her hands to the cold as death flesh of two members of the Juunishi. Jinn closed her eyes and allowed her power to fill her up. Tohru's long mane of mahogany tresses lifted in the air with the power of the energy flowing through her body. Her skin became tinged with pink; her hair had a red tint.

_I can help! _Tohru whispered in Jinn's mind. Tohru had felt the influx of Jinn's power. She had felt a similar might before when her love for Yuki and the others had enabled her to keep control of her mind. She concentrated her power to meld with Jinn's.

There was a flash of golden light. A Golden silhouette of a butterfly appeared over them and the song of a phoenix flooded the air. The majesty of such power sent Kureno to his knees. Jinn ignored him draping her body atop the fallen brothers. She allowed her power to flow into them, to restore their failing spirit, to pull them back to themselves. She absorbed and dispersed the poison Ayame had taken. He groggily stirred and his eyes opened slowly.

Ayame taken care of, Jinn turned her full attention to Yuki. The song of the phoenix trilled again, piercing the night, shimmering golden lights danced in a shower of molten sun as the Golden butterfly again flapped its wings. As she healed him jinn studied the sleeping prince from beneath her lashes. He was tall and delicate, but his slight frame hid lean sinewy muscle. Jinn felt a stirring inside her she had not expected; a woman's hunger in her middle. She could see why Tohru loved this one. She sensed strength and sorrow in him, as her energy pierced and filled him she sensed a well of gentleness that offered her long ago beaten spirit solace and rest.

Jinn knew as she healed the young man in her arms, as their spirits briefly merged and then withdrew, that she- at least- would never be the same. As she allowed her strength to fill him he stirred in her arms, his body rubbed against hers. Lightning shot through her and she gasped at the arc of desire, which stabbed her so neatly. Her eyes were wide in shock as she healed the prince in her arms.

Ayame watched in hope and fascination as Tohru gathered his brother to her. They fit together neatly. He observed in wonder as light arced and bounced around them, and he thought he could almost see Tohru pouring herself into his brother. Yuki's color returned. His bruises began to fade and heal. The stitched wound healed flawlessly before his eyes, the thread gone. Then Yuki stirred. Aya felt tears wet his face and fall from his eyes in an unblinking downpour. His brother was safe. He would live thanks to this precious girl.

This girl had returned yet again to their cursed family, and yet again she brought Yuki back to life.

Tohru's eyes snapped open and she gazed upon Yuki with the eyes of a woman awakening to her own desires. Ayame felt himself smile as he saw her hand clutch reflexively in Yuki's hair and the other on his arm when he shifted.

Her eyes were red though. Aya felt his smile slip. Tohru's eyes were supposed to be blue. Why then were her eyes red? Tohru clutched Yuki's hair and then leaned down close. With her eyes still open she captured Yuki's lips in a kiss. She gently brushed her lips against his. He moaned into her mouth, his eyelids fluttering.

The Phoenix sang her song, one of triumph, suddenly the giant golden butterfly exploded into hundreds of small sparkling butterflies. The wind did not die down though. Power flowed through jinn and it was a power each member of the Juunishi felt.

Ayame watched Tohru lower her head again. This time she rested her lips against Yuki's moving her mouth over his. She breathed her breath into him and he gave it back to her. His mouth opened and Tohru began gently suckling his lip. Yuki opened his eyes to find himself living a dream he had had far too often. He was lying in bed, Tohru was with him and she was kissing him. Surely this must be a dream. Quickly before the dream could end he reached up a hand to pull Tohru close to him and kissed her with all the pent up passion in his heart.

He had dreamed of nothing else the past year, nor desired anything more than to feel Tohru in his arms, to feel her mouth upon his own and to kiss her as he would never kiss another. Her mouth yielded to his and her arms tightened around him as her body melded against the length of his. His kiss was unpracticed and clumsy; such is the way of first kisses. Nevertheless it knocked the breath out of both Tohru and Jinn. They felt their entire body was on fire.

"Tohru?" Hatori breathed softly from the door. Tohru pulled away from Yuki with a jerk. Yuki was staring up at her dreamily as she looked toward the door. As she looked into the doctor's eyes Hatori gasped. This was not Tohru staring back at him. She was… changed. Her eyes were a feral red that sent shivers up Hatori's spine. Gracefully she withdrew from Yuki and stood, her hair still rising from the powerful energy that rolled off her in waves. In two voices from one mouth she spoke.

"Yes it's me. I come to take back what is mine. I told you a year ago, I would return for my family. How could you let this happen." Her hands balled into fists and diamond droplets fell from her eyes. She raised an arm to wipe away her tears.

"How could any of you let what happened to Yuki take place!" She cried. A burst of energy shot from her and the Juunishi cried out as they were flung to the floor. She turned back to Yuki. She smiled so tenderly at him that his breath caught in his throat.

"I have come for you Yuki." Tohru smiled warmly. He felt his face light up with embarrassment. That kiss had been no dream. He was suddenly quite shocked as Tohru placed one hand beneath his knees and the other around his shoulders, lifting him from the bed as if he weighed no more than a child might. Out of pure reflex he threw his arms about her neck.

"Honda-San-" He protested but she paid no heed as she advanced toward the door. Ayame watched in wonder, practically swooning over the romance of it all as Tohru stepped through the door taking with her an aura of power that made his hair stand on end. With Yuki in her arms, Ayame watched Tohru and his brother disappear into the night.

Ayame was thrilled. He didn't quite understand all that had happened but he realized one thing that made his heart cry out with joy. Tohru, Yuki's teenage love, she had embraced him with a woman's passion, kissed him with a woman's desire. Tohru had wrapped her body lovingly around Yuki as she healed him.

And Yuki had not changed.

Yuki clutched tight to Tohru as she ran with inhuman speed and grace, leaping the Sohma walls as if they were nothing. She ran the two of them to Shigure's old house. The door swept open before them as if the house had been awaiting their return.

Tohru laid Yuki gently upon his old bed, a smile of such tenderness in her eyes that his heart ached and tears welled up in his eyes. She had changed. She was slimmer, leaner, more angles than curves. Yuki read in her that the past year had not been entirely kind to her. He wanted to sweep her into his arms, to kiss away the darkness he saw in her eyes so that she need never fear the night again.

Tohru's eyes drank in the sight of Yuki. He was the same as ever. He was elegant, even in a simple linen shirt. His hair was still short, his eyes a soft lavender that made your bones melt like chocolate left in the sun. Her lips tingled, she could still taste him, soft and tangy and salt. She eased herself to the bed at his side, staring up into his eyes searching his gaze for any hint of what had happened.

"Yuki-kun." She whispered softly.

"Honda-san." He answered in a hushed tone.

"What happened?" She whispered, her face a mask of concern.

Yuki looked away ashamed to meet her gaze.

"I was never the man you imagined me to be Honda-San. I let them lock up Kyo. I went to see him, but not as often as I should have. I only went when I thought Akito wouldn't know. Sometimes, she found out."

_Akito punishes him when he doesn't obey…_ Tohru's heart wailed in misery. Jinn reached out a small delicate hand and turned Yuki's eyes to meet hers.

"You are more the man that I knew you could be today than you ever were. I couldn't love you more if I tried."

"Honda-San!" Yuki gasped. He found himself weeping then, great trembling sobs that welled up from somewhere deep inside him. All the abuse, all the ugliness he had endured under Akito's harsh rule melted off of him under the sweet smile of Tohru's love. She renewed him. In her arms he was made whole once more. He leaned into her arms and she wrapped them around his neck, cradling his weeping head to her chest as he expunged all the ugliness foisted upon him by his deranged God. His arms unwittingly wrapped around her waist as he cried.

_It was a good first wish, wasn't it Jinn-san?_ Tohru whispered tearfully in Jinn's head.

Upon learning of the conditions of Jinn's help Tohru had made her first wish without hesitation. It was a desire that had hummed longingly throughout her entire body and soul for years.

_"I wish to be able to embrace my family, every one of them!" _She had shouted the words aloud so there could be no doubt.

_Hai, Tohru-kun, it was a good first wish._


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 Passion of the Crimson Jinn**

Yuki awoke in the morning fully refreshed and feeling better than he ever had before. As his eyes crept open he realized it was early morning the sunlight from his window bathed Honda-san's hair in a golden glow as she slept.

He froze. She was sleeping. She was stretched out beside him. His face turned crimson. His head was lying in the hollow between her armpit and her breast and his arms were thrown around her. Another shockwave spiraled through him. He was hugging her and he had not changed. A warm liquid sensation unspiralled in his middle and an aching tenderness welled up into his throat. _He could hold her_. He let out a sigh. His body relaxed and he allowed himself to lye against her. She was so warm. She was soft.

He watched her chest rise and fall with each breath and he studied the changes in her. There were dark circles beneath her eyes. She had some faint worry lines on the corners of her mouth and on her forehead. It was as if she couldn't let go her troubles, even in her sleep. She was slightly taller than he remembered. Her small hips were a bit bonier; less girlishly round than he remembered.

Of their own volition his fingers reached out to stroke the cascade of sable hair spread enticingly over the pillow she lay on. It was like silk, the sun caught honey highlights that made the light on her tresses dance and wink, the light even played with his eyes as he detected hints of red on Tohru's hair and pink pigment in her skin.

Yuki smiled lovingly. His hand trailed from her hair to her neck, first the tips of his fingers, then he got to her shoulders. His hand wrapped gently around her lithe limb and he stroked her arm as one strokes a cat. He marveled at the feminine softness paired with the strength he felt in the muscle as he trailed his hand down her upper arm. Her skin had darkened and she had a light sprinkling of freckles, four or five in a little cluster around her elbow.

Without a second thought he raised his head slightly, laying it on his elbow and leaned forward. His lips gently covered the cluster and rested momentarily on her warm flesh. Yuki closed his eyes in ecstasy.

She tasted like happiness.

He felt Tohru shiver. His eyes snapped open and he eased back from her arm to meet her gaze. She stared unblinking into his eyes. Her lips parted slightly in emotion. Yuki could see a faint glow in her eyes. It reached into his gut and slammed into him with a visceral certitude. It was the glow of a woman's hunger.

Honda-San wanted him.

His breath hitched. He leaned forward, capturing her lips with his.

Tohru saw him coming. She felt herself blush furiously. She tried to lean away.

Jinn was having none of it. Jinn leaned Tohru's body forward and met Yuki half way in a clash of lips. Tohru was so surprised she allowed the spirit to take over. Jinn's arms snaked up around Yuki to stroke his arms in passion. They moved to his face where she cupped him in her palms as she dominated the kiss, devouring Yuki with three hundred years worth of pent up passion and a lifetime of yearning for love such as Tohru had for him. She suckled his bottom lip and nipped it lightly. She heard him whimper beneath her and smiled widely. He wasn't surprised long though, and she allowed him to take over as her fingers slid to his shirt, which she began to unbutton with fingers trembling in desire. He pressed and released her mouth with several short kisses that made the wild itching heat in her chest and loins burgeon to explosive levels. She mewled her frustration as she pushed his shirt over his shoulders.

Yuki responded to her unspoken demand, his lips claiming hers again. His tongue slid in sensual delight along her lower lip and her mouth parted hungrily. His shirt off, he pressed his body to hers, melding their flesh together as if he sought to absorb her into himself. His tongue darted into her mouth and she moaned into him, her own met his in an erotic dance as old as time. She began to suck it. Yuki growled low in his throat his body arcing into her hers involuntarily. Her hands raked down his naked back as he moved his own to cup her breasts through her top.

Yuki felt afire! His skin tingled everywhere she touched. Her scratches on his back rather than being painful excited him beyond bearing. He could feel his erect member straining against the boundary of his pants. He wanted this woman with every ounce of his spirit! But more than her passion, more than her body, he wanted her love. His hands found her breasts small and round and firm. He gently massaged them as he lowered her back onto the mattress. She moaned his name into his mouth and he almost lost his seed right there. Her voice was so thick with desire and it was his name she cried out against his mouth.

With a low growl in his throat he pressed himself full length against her. Her hands clutched him to her as if trying to gather him closer. He tore his mouth from hers and began raining warm wet kisses down her throat. He dragged his teeth up the side of her neck and delighted in her gasp of desire. He captured her earlobe in his mouth, nipping playfully before releasing it and kneading the base of her ear behind the lobe with tiny kisses.

She seemed to come off the bed; thrusting her body against his she grabbed his head as if to hold him where he was.

"Yuki!" She cried again. Her nails were digging into his arms.

Yuki had never experienced anything remotely close to what he was feeling at that moment. He had never dared to dream of holding her close to him as he was now. This pressing of torso to torso was the most intimate and erotic act he had ever done. His nipples were small pink nubs on his hairless chest. With Tohru spread beneath him Yuki pulled himself from her. She cried out in protest, but he wanted to feel her skin next to his. He began tugging her shirt up, Tohru leaned forward to help him accomplish his goal more quickly and she was rewarded when after removing the shirt he swooped down and pressed a hard kiss to her navel. She shuddered in bliss and moaned as his tongue dipped into her navel before trailing a wet path up her torso toward her breasts. She raked her nails through Yuki's silver hair her eyes mere slits as she watched him worship her body with his mouth. She was nothing but liquid sensation, warm golden firewater in his arms. Her skin felt too tight and she strained restlessly against Yuki for a satisfaction she could not put name to. He reached beneath her back and unlatched her bra. In a moment her breasts were free. Yuki pulled back to view Tohru with rapture. As Jinn and Tohru both gazing from the same eyes saw the rapt look of wonder and desire on Yuki's face they both agreed that neither had ever felt more beautiful than at that moment.

Yuki brought his lips to Tohru's neck and began to suckle gently on her collarbone, much as a babe would suckle at a mother's breast. Tohru gasped and squeezed his shoulders in her hands. Yuki dragged his body along hers until his mouth met hers again. His mouth captured hers and began to consume her own. He sucked at her tongue even as his own pillaged the depths of her mouth his tongue slid against hers dancing. Tohru was wracked with shivers and heat, her hips bucked against him as she felt herself drawing closer to some delicious bliss.

Yuki pulled back from Tohru, his lavender eyes studying her kiss-swollen lips and slumberous eyes with male pride and satisfaction.

"Tohru-kun, I want to make love to you. Is this what you want?" His voice trembled. Unbeknownst to him a note of longing and fear had entered his voice. Even after she had declared her love to him, even after she had retrieved his soul from the brink of death, he still feared her rejection. Tohru heard the uncertainty in his voice and tears spiked her lashes.

"I love you Yuki-kun. I want this. I want you."

It was all the encouragement he needed. Yuki shimmied against Tohru, he was stretched full length atop her, her thighs had spread on instinct and now cupped his lower half to her. He propped himself over her on his elbows and rubbed his chest against hers reveling in the sensation of his skin on hers. It was a feeling he had never thought to experience, it filled him with the greatest joy imaginable and an unbridled lust.

With hungry intent he leaned down and kissed Tohru again. She opened before him, but he merely teased her lips with his before gently dragging his teeth down her chin, down her neck to end in a kiss on her collar. His arms rubbed her sides beginning at her breasts he traced her body between his hands down her ribcage, over her waist, to pull her loins tight to his, gasping at the pleasure it elicited. She gasped with him, mirroring his enjoyment. He ducked his head and captured one ripe pink areola in his mouth and suckled with his lips then laving over it with his tongue as a cat would lave a milk droplet. As he did this he gently cupped and massaged the other breast.

The second Yuki took her nipple in his mouth Tohru arched up against him. She screamed his name in pleasure. Powerful spasms shook her body as she clutched him close to her. The shivers were getting stronger. The heat in her chest and loins was washing over her in great waves. Then he licked her and the world dissolved in a starburst of fiery sensations, her eyes closed in ecstasy and a kaleidoscope of colors emblazoned a path through the darkness behind her eyelids. Her lover kissed her nipple with such tenderness, another flush of heat burst from her middle and she was filled with such erotic warmth, but she was so weak she could only cry out his name and caress his head as he moved to minister her other breast.

Yuki suckled the other nipple slightly harder than he had the first and was rewarded with another shrill call of his name. Tohru was so alive beneath him, so passionate. He knew he would have to claim her soon or embarrass himself. With another soft kiss to her breast he lowered himself between her legs. He pulled off her panties in a fluid motion and spread her thighs apart. Tohru was not so far lost to passion that she wasn't aware of where Yuki had positioned himself. She blushed. He was looking at her.

_Down there!_

She tried to close her legs but Yuki pressed a hard kiss to her inner thigh just above her most intimate place and Tohru gasped at the fire that ignited in her blood. Her body jerked involuntarily toward Yuki's mouth. She was mortified. She raised her hands weakly to push him away. He grasped both by the wrist. He pinned one to her side while he bit her other on the underside of the wrist. He did not bite hard enough to wound he merely pressed down lightly with his teeth on her wrist. She screamed his name again, as an explosion of passion rocked her to her core from where he bit her, her body bucking wildly towards him. He lowered his face closer to the springy nest of sable down.

Her hair was darker than that on her head. He pressed his nose to the crease of her thigh and pelvis and inhaled the scent of her desire. He breathed in the smell of her need. His cock bucked against his pants and he gasped. Her small pink opening glistened with passion beckoning him to take a taste.

And so he imbibed.

He stuck out his tongue flattening it, allowing it to be soft and limp as he dragged it along her woman's mound. He kissed her crease as he had her mouth, his tongue dipping and thrusting into her opening, lapping the thick rich ambrosia that pooled beneath his onslaught.

Tohru was incoherent. She couldn't breathe or think or move. She was trying so hard not to press Yuki's face into her. She whimpered and moaned and cried out. She declared her love and for a moment confused Yuki with the lord God and cried out for both of them.

Then as his tongue, soft and warm and wet, made slow lazy circles on the side of her clitoris her world came apart.

"OH…MY..Yuki!" She Screamed. Her entire body spasmed, from her face to her neck to her shoulders and breasts, her stomach exploding and shivering and her loins convulsing in rhapsody. Nothing could have prepared her. She soared on wings of pleasure.

How could anything feel this good? She wondered.

Yuki rose from her mound after kissing her _there_ one last time. His face bore a look of intense concentration. She pulled him to her. He kissed her again. She could taste herself on his mouth. It was thrilling and arousing. He rolled one nipple between his finger even as he kissed her. She felt the heat return swiftly pooling in her middle. She gasped in shock.

Yuki brought down one hand and pet her mons in a smooth slow circle. With one finger he probed her moist folds. Tohru's legs shifted apart and he slid one finger into her wet sheath, she was so tight. He began to flex his finger inside her even as his kiss traveled from her mouth back to the sensitive base of her ear. She was rocking against him now, heedless of all save the pleasure he brought her. Yuki withdrew his finger. In a swift movement he removed his pants before returning to claim her throat with his mouth. She cried out in passion as he kissed and nipped and sucked at her ear, to her neck to her collar. He captured her breast in his mouth and sucked again, nipping so softly that it barely registered except to heighten her already soaring arousal.

Yuki was ready to burst but he wanted this moment emblazoned forever on his soul. He watched Tohru's face tighten and open in her newfound passion.

A passion he had ignited.

His cock strained to be inside her but he wanted to go slow. He stroked her with the head of his rigid member. She moved against him, her arousal making his penis slick as he probed and petted her. She cried out his name as a thousand soft and whimpering prayers of pleasure.

"Tohru!" He called out. His voice was like molten heaven and it arced like lightning into her heart. Tohru's eyes snapped open to lock with his. They were a majestic dark storm cloud of rich purple.

"Yuki…" She whispered. Then he slid into her. Her eyes snapped wide in shock as Yuki pushed resolutely past the thin membrane evidencing her virginity. Even as aroused as she was she was so small and tight that he stretched the limits of her body.

It burned!

She felt torn apart and all she wanted was to get away! She tried to move. Yuki moaned atop her as she squirmed. His elbows slipped and he clutched her to him so she couldn't move.

"Tohru!" He hissed. "Be still. The pain should ease, but if you continue to move…"

"It hurts Yuki!" She cried out. Fat silver tears spilled from her eyes. Even Jinn was subdued as she was forced to feel anew the experience of _the first time_.

Yuki looked at the young woman he clutched protectively in his arms, the young woman sealed to his body and a fierce surge of protectiveness welled up with in him.

"The pain will ease, let's be still for a moment." He kissed her hair and nuzzled her gently. "Shhhhh…" he murmured consolingly. The sound rumbled from low in his throat. Tohru snuggled into the hollow of his neck trustingly, trying to stifle the sobs. Yuki shifted. Pain lanced through her again and she cried out.

"I thought you said you wouldn't move!" There was a note of hurt in her voice.

"I'm trying my love…" His teeth were gritted and sweat beaded his brow. It suddenly occurred to Tohru that in all their passion she had found heaven in his arms while he had yet to find a similar satisfaction.

_This linking of bodies… It is so… intimate. This must be how Yuki will find his heaven._ She realized if Yuki was going to share her bliss she would have to move.

She slowly eased away from Yuki, then forced her body forward. With a gasp Yuki moved deeper into her. She hissed as the pain struck her anew, but intermingled in that pain was that elusive pleasure.

Yuki moved slowly. His rhythm was off and clumsy, but he gave Tohru time to accustom her body to his. It was all he could do not to spill himself in her right there, but to do so would surely destroy her newfound passion and he refused to allow her to leave his body without the desire to return to it and return quickly.

She would enjoy this!

He reached between them and found her nub, wet and slick with her maiden's blood and spent desire. He began massaging lightly forcing himself to keep the pressure light. She gasped and he caught her mouth in a torrid kiss. Her hands came up to his head, pulling the hair on the back of his neck as they touched tongues mingling breath and essence. Yuki withdrew slowly keeping his fingers working her inner fold. He pushed back into her and her legs tightened around him. He moved his mouth off hers to cry out her name, she answered him frantically, squeezing her body to his with her long lithe legs. He could wait no longer; he bent his mouth to the flesh of her shoulder and bit her tenderly before sucking the flesh pink as he spilled his seed into her wet hot body, moaning gutturally into her skin.

He pumped into her again and again. He suddenly felt Tohru's muscles spasm and lock around his penis sucking forth every drop of his masculine essence. Tohru's arms moved to his buttocks and pulled him tight to her as the last of her spasms faded. Yuki rolled to the side pulling her with him, keeping their bodies locked together.

The sun spilled down on his woman bathing her in a golden glow.

"I love you Tohru Honda." He whispered before kissing her forehead. She ran her hands lovingly down his chest, kissing each of his nipples before resting her head over his heart.

"I love you Yuki Sohma." She closed her eyes and slept.

Jinn tried not to feel the momentary arc of longing as she wished it had been her name spoken by Yuki, before she too drifted into a restful slumber.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 I want you both**

_Tohru…_ Tohru stirred, she muttered incoherently, snuggling deeper into the warmth pillowing her head.

_Tohru…wake up._

"Jinn?" Tohru muttered. Her eyes came slowly open.

"Who is Jinn?" A voice asked gently in her ear.

"I am." Tohru answered without thinking. Yuki giggled. Tohru's eyes widened at the sound. She tilted her head up to look into his eyes. Her breath caught. He was looking at her with such tenderness. She became aware of her nakedness beneath the blankets. She became aware of her naked flesh touching his. Her face heated. But she did not look away. She was to enthralled at the Yuki before her to move. He was so relaxed. He was so… peaceful and beautiful. She smiled tentatively into his eyes and he smiled back.

"I love you, Tohru Honda, you don't need to be anyone else. Just be yourself."

"Myself would never have been so bold, Yuki-kun, and so, at least this once, I am glad that I was not myself, but that I was Jinn san!" Yuki's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Miss Hon- Tohru, what do you mean?" Tohru began turning all shades of red as Yuki sat up, sliding his body along hers, eliciting a thousand delicious sensations, all of them naughty.

_Jinn san, help me please. _Tohru thought. It was just natural to allow Jinn to take control; Tohru was so innocent and so easily flustered especially in this situation and she was trying to explain a very unique situation naked.

Yuki felt himself go hot then cold as Tohru changed before his eyes. Her blue eyes went crimson, a pink hue suffused her skin and her hair became auburn.

"I am Jinn, Yuki Sohma." Jinn ducked her head, inexplicably nervous. She peeked up at Yuki her tummy churned as his pale features went even paler.

"What… what is going on… Tohru?" He asked on a panicked breath. Jinn moved to take his hand in her own, clutching the sheet to her chest as she did so. She slid her hand into his limp one.

"We are Jinn and Tohru. We are one and at the same time we are two. I am the protection against Hatori. Through my powers I will aid Tohru in freeing the Sohma's from their curse." Her eyes shifted blue again.

"And it was because of Jinn san that I was able to save you and Ayame. Without her you both would have died." Her eyes shifted red as she responded aloud to herself for Yuki's benefit.

"That's not completely true. Tohru has immense spiritual power on her own. She has a golden soul. With the proper training she could have healed you both, while I did use some of my own strength the bulk of the healing came from Tohru's love for you and Ayame."

"So who did I make love to last night?!" Yuki asked, he sounded as if he were being strangled. Tohru flushed crimson even as she dimpled at him.

"We made love Yuki-kun. Tohru and Yuki… and Jinn." Yuki felt as if the air had been sucked from his lungs.

"Tohru, did Jinn force you to-" Tohru's hand flew to cover Yuki's mouth. The sheet slid lower revealing the rounded top of her breasts as she slid one hand into his hair behind his head and lay the other over his mouth. Her eyes were blue as she shook her head at him.

"Yuki-kun, Jinn gave me the courage to do what I wanted to do, she does not control me. I do not control her. We are… of the same will. I've wanted to be with Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun for as long as I can remember. I just never thought that being with you like that could be so," she paused as if seeking the right word before settling on one, "satisfying. I love Yuki-kun. I have no regrets about what we have done." She then removed her hand from his mouth and as if to reaffirm her words she leaned forward and kissed him. It was a brief capture and release of lips but it left Yuki bemused as she stood and began gathering her clothes. Then the rest of what she said sank in and his mouth dropped open.

"Wait a minute, Miss Hon- Tohru, you want to… do _that_ with Kyo as well?" She froze as he waited for her response. She was twisting her panties in her hand as she considered his question. Finally she answered him in a soft voice.

"I love Yuki-kun. But I love Kyo-kun too. I do not want to ever be apart from either of you. I want to spend my life with Yuki and Kyo. I want us to live together and take our meals together and… and yes I want us to make love together!" She raised shining eyes to Yuki, her face marred by a troubled frown. "I know it's not… normal. I know I am being selfish and I should just give one of you up." Her mouth pursed in a firm line and a determined note entered her voice, "But you are both mine and I will fight to keep you both!" Her eyes met and held his. Yuki collapsed weakly against the bed.

"Miss Hon- Tohru, you can't be in love with both of us… not like _that!" _His eyes pleaded with her for understanding.

"Yuki-kun you say can't like I have a choice, but my heart has already chosen you both. A world without Yuki and Kyo is a world I will not face. And so I choose to love you both for as long as you will let me." Her eyes dropped and she fled to the bathroom. Yuki watched her retreating back in amazement. How had he gotten himself into this mess?

He numbly stood and began dressing. Last night had been the most amazing night of his life. He knew he would never feel for another as he felt for Tohru Honda. He still couldn't believe he could hold her and he wouldn't transform. But the idea of sharing her affection, her heart… and yes her body with Kyo made him uncomfortable. He had always assumed that when you fell in love it was with just one person, but thinking back over the years he could see where Tohru obviously cared for both him and Kyo in a manner that was different than the affection she had for the rest of their family. Could it be possible that Tohru really did love the two of them?

Yuki grimaced as he pulled on his socks. A year ago he had felt nothing but contempt for the cat along with a bit of envy. But now, he admired the way the cat had kept his word, a promise Yuki didn't think he would have been able to keep. He admired Kyo's ability to be strong even when the world beat him down. And in his heart he pitied the cat, locked up in a one room shanty with wooden slats for windows only visited by Akito and your worst enemy. Kyo was worse off than any member of the Juunishi but he survived in spite of his hardship. He never gave up. Yuki was uncertain if he would have had the strength to carry on as Kyo had.

There was a knock on the door. He stiffened wondering who it could be. Tohru was still in the shower. So he warily went downstairs and opened the door.

"I am glad that it was you prince." The eerily calm voice came from Hanajima as she strolled past him. Uotani was grinning hugely at him. She slapped him on the back and laughed aloud.

"You old dog you! I always thought it woulda' been Orange-top myself, you were always so formal with Tohru _miss Honda_ this and _miss Honda_ that. Who would have ever thought it would have been you to make our dear Tohru a woman!"

"But who will make her a bride I wonder?" Hana queried serenely as she sat down. Arisa's smile fled and her pipe came out. She struck the flat of her palm.

"I daresay the prince here will definitely do the right thing!" She growled.

"That is not for us to decide." Hanajima said her eyes locking and holding Arisa's gaze. Arisa relaxed and sheathed her pipe.

"I guess not." Hanajima turned her eyes back to Yuki who was wishing that the floor would open up and swallow him on the spot. How did they know? He wondered.

"When you have the abilities that I do it's very difficult to keep a secret, especially Tohru. I am very glad it was you prince. Though I know she loves Kyo as much as she loves you I always knew you would be the gentler lover, the perfect match for Tohru's initiation into womanhood." Arisa nodded her head in thoughtful agreement.

"That's true, I know that the prince here would at least make sure Tohru enjoyed herself, I'm not too sure that ol' Orangey woulda' been able to control himself enough." Her eyes met his and she smiled widely, "Thanks prince!"

"Ummm… your welcome." He muttered unsure of himself. It was a relief when Tohru breezed into the room.

"Uo-chan, Hana-chan!" She threw her arms around first one friend then the other. They returned the embrace immediately. They were laughing and exclaiming their delight and consternation in equal measure. They had been worried when Tohru disappeared but then Hana had sensed from her waves what Tohru was doing and they were both so happy for her.

"But never do that again, what if Hatori had been there!" Uotani chided.

"Or Akito." Hanajima intoned her eyes going darker. Tohru waved her hands defensively grinning at her friends concern.

"I would have been alright, I have Jinn and I took my needle pouch with me so I could've stopped anyone if I had needed to." Her face grew serious. "I think I may have sensed their need. Ayame and Yuki were both dying." Arisa and Hana both gasped as Tohru related in detail what had happened when Kureno had led her to Yuki's sick room.

"And your God did this to you because you went to visit Kyo?" Hanajima asked him, her disturbing eyes locking with his. Yuki swallowed uncomfortable.

"Akito… Akito is not like other people." Arisa snorted disdainfully her eyes flaming.

"I should say not." Yuki flushed crimson as he tried again to explain.

"Akito doesn't mean to hurt others… she just… does. She wants to be loved and she is afraid." He finished lamely. Tohru eyed him through two sets of eyes.

"Why is she afraid Yuki?" A pair of voices queried from her mouth. He gaped at her as he realized that both voices were hers.

"She doesn't want to be alone, I think." Arisa snorted again.

"So she beats anyone who shows any bit of free will and tries to control every aspect of the lives of those she thinks she loves. Why haven't you guys just left the bitch?!" Yuki raised angry eyes to Arisa, meeting her glare for glare.

"Because she is our GOD. It doesn't matter what she does to us," His breathing become labored and his voice rased in volume, "we love her and we just wish she would be happy, when she is angry, or sad it is like a wound on our soul and we cannot find… peace… and it…hurts…us..because…we…love her…so much! Aaaaaa!" Yuki collapsed to the ground his breathing labored and intense, tears rushing from him in great liquid waves. He couldn't stop crying, he couldn't get control, he couldn't breathe. He loved Akito and Akito hated, Hated, HATED HIM! Akito had tried to KILL him! With a wail of anguish, Yuki curled himself into a ball. He wanted to just DIE!

Suddenly she was in his mind.

_Be calm Yuki. _Sh commanded him gently

_I can't!_ He cried out in misery in his mind.

_You can. I will help you._ Yuki felt the warmth of Tohru seep into his soul, he felt the sunlight of her spirit seep into his existence and merge with him. Their memories merged and they began recalling each others experience each recollection vivid and fresh, there were no secrets between them as they became one spirit. Yuki realized that Jinn had allowed this gift. She was soaking up all his pain, all his darkness, smoothing out the black blots and stains of his life and suffusing his being with the gilded Butterflies golden light.

_I will not leave you alone, my love. _ Tohru's thought speak pierced his mind as a phoenix song cried out.

Yuki returned to himself to find his head being cradled against the chest of the girl he loved, his tears drying fast on his heated cheek. Uotani and Hanajima both supporting Tohru as she supported him. His eyes met Hanajima's. Silver tears clung to her thick dark lashes as she smiled encouragingly at him.

"What… just happened?" He asked as he pulled himself slowly away from Tohru.

"You were having a panic attack. Jinn allowed us to merge and I soothed you." Tohru was looking at his with a woman's eyes, timeless and inviting, soft and gentle, the sparkling warmth of her love shone through her gaze, caressing his skin and soothing his sorrow.

"I love you." He said without thinking. Tohru's smile widened.

"I know." She stood to her feet. "I'm surprised Akito hasn't sent anyone here to check on us. I would think that this would be the first place she would look for us."

"If she even cares to look." Yuki responded unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Tohru's hand moved to his shoulders to relax him as she continued.

"I need to know the layout of the Sohma grounds. I need to know where the quarters are of all the other members of the Juunishi. Can you create a map for me Yuki?" Yuki nodded.

"I don't know that any of the other members of the zodiac will come with you Tohru, none of us wants to displease our god."

"I've thought of that Yuki-kun, but I want to give them each the option. As for Kyo," she firmed her lips into a grim line, "he doesn't have a choice. After tonight no cat will ever be locked up in the cat house again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 It all begins with a name: Reunion in Sunlight**

It was decided that Tohru would get into the compound the same way she had the night before. Arisa and Sake would be waiting not far from the plum tree with the car. Yuki was adamant about coming with them. He was not at all happy when Tohru asked him not to.

"Yuki-kun, if the rest of the Sohma's see you they will know I am nearby. I love Yuki Kun. I do not wish for him to ever have to choose between his family and me. So therefore… it is my wish that you do not place yourself in a position where such a choice would have to be made! They are all probably very worried about you, especially Ayame-san and Haru-kun."

"Tohru-kun, you know I would always choose you. After last night-" As Yuki reached toward Tohru she began frowning fiercely and shaking her head.

"Even after last night I would not want to bring Yuki kun any pain."

"Honda-San," Yuki whispered slipping back into old and familiar habits, "You bring me more happiness than I ever dreamed possible." Tohru smiled at him, it was funny but when Yuki called her Honda-san, she heard _my love_ in his voice. She shook her head to clear away the clouds and stared intently at Yuki.

"Also, there is another and more important reason I need Yuki-kun here. Someone needs to wait here at Shigure's. If Akito or anyone comes looking for us, this will be the first place they think to check. When we come back it will be up to you to let us know whether it is safe for us here. Imagine if we returned here after what happens tonight to find Akito and the police waiting for us. Please Yuki-kun, we need to have a safe place to return to tonight." Yuki didn't like it, but Tohru had a point, and if either Arisa or Sake were to stay and Akito showed up, she could have them arrested for trespassing. And when she asked with such bright hope filled eyes, Yuki couldn't deny her.

Tohru was happy Yuki had decided to stay at the house. She definitely didn't want him to be connected in anyway to what she was going to do this night.

_My mother was part of a suicide squad, she was known as the red butterfly. She would burn herself with cigarettes to seal alliances with other gang members. It was said that when she drove her bike through the darkness her red lights would flash like the fluttering wings of a red butterfly. I know she did a lot of bad things, she did it because she felt as if she wa all alone and the world had left her behind. Well I have been left alone as well. My family, the Sohma's were taken from me. My loves were denied their freedom and tormented by someone they adored as their God. I know my mother would never want me to do anything illegal and yet… She would know and understand why I will do what I must to protect the people I love._

"I am Tohru Honda, the Golden Butterfly. Tonight the world will awaken and my enemies will tremble. My friends will hope. My legend will be born for better or worse and my family will be free." She whispered the words to the darkness as shadows whizzed by the car window.

"Say what Tohru?" Arisa asked from the front seat, her eyes meeting Tohru's determined gaze through the rearview mirror. Tohru just smiled and shook her head before realizing that Arisa probably couldn't make out the small movement in the dark.

"Nothing Uo-chan!" Arisa shrugged as she turned the car, pulling up to the plum tree and then slowing to a stop.

Tohru got out of the car, watching it pull away and disappear into the night. She knew Arisa was going to circle the block a couple of times before pulling off into the shadows across the street. With a grunt Tohru leapt to the first branch, her muscles straining as she began swinging her way up into the tree. Tohru was glad Yuki stayed behind, mainly because she wanted her reunion with Kyo to be uninterrupted by Yuki. She loved Yuki, but she feared with the way their relationship had changed the rivalry between Yuki and Kyo might intensify and she really was hoping to not get caught tonight.

With the previous nights experience Tohru was better able to judge the distance between wall and tree. She also knew just how much strength and effort was going to be required to pull herself up the side of the wall. She paused for a moment, rotating her shoulder cuffs and stretching her arm muscles. She allowed herself time to breathe and recollect her stamina and energy. She was also able to brace her body for the impact as she slammed into the side. She pulled herself up and jumped to the ground on the other side.

"Is Yuki okay?" A voice came from the shadows. Tohru had a needle in hand prepared for this, but she smiled at Kureno and stepped toward him.

"Yuki-kun is fine. How is Ayame-sama?" She whispered. Kureno locked eyes with her, gratitude shining in his dark orbs.

"Ayame lives. I can never thank you enough Tohru Honda for all that you have done. Akito was… well Akito was inconsolable when she realized what her rage had done. Luckily she didn't find out about Ayame until after you healed him. Otherwise I don't like to think of what she would have done to herself." Tohru's eyes flashed violet sparks.

"Akito should learn not to hurt those she claims to love!" She spat. Kureno's eyes widened at Tohru's anger.

"Tohru, you don't understand," Kureno's voice was weary yet calm, his voice full of yearning as he tried to help Tohru understand the God he loved. "Akito loves all the Juunishi, she just-"

"Save it!" Tohru snapped, her blue eyes flashing red fire and violet sparks, "I healed the results of her _love_ last night. Love like that should be burned to death." Kureno paled, lowering his eyes.

"I'm sorry you can't understand. I just wanted to tell you how grateful we all are."

"Well you told me." Tohru whispered regaining control of her ire. She did not usually become upset so easily.

_Sorry Tohru, that was me._ Jinn spoke sheepishly in Tohru's mind.

_No,_ Tohru thought back, _I believe it was both of us. I too carry much anger in my heart for Akito-sama. _Tohru returned her attention to Kureno who was watching her patiently.

_"_I really am sorry Kureno-sama, but- well… I can't have you letting the others know I was here sooo…" She leaned forward; her arm was so swift even as her expression was so innocently apologetic, it never even occurred to Kureno to defend himself. Tohru stuck a needle into his neck. Kureno sunk to the ground. Tohru tried to catch him, to soften the fall, but he was too heavy and too tall. With a thump he fell. She moved him into a more comfortable position. She then placed three more needles between his neck and armpit. That would cause him to temporarily forget the last few minutes before he passed out. Tohru observed him with a chagrined eye. He might catch a cold laying there in the dew as he was.

_Jinn?_ Tohru asked.

_Let me have control._ Jinn agreed. In a second Tohru's eyes went from cornflower blue, to bloodstain crimson, her skin become covered in a pink blush and her hair flowed from chestnut to auburn. Jinn lifted the unconscious Kureno and moved him to a reclining lawn chair beneath a large pavilion. A hand crafted throw rested at the foot of the chair. Jinn tucked him in covering his body from foot to chin, and repositioning his neck so that he would not awaken with an uncomfortable crick. Jinn smiled suddenly and placed a hand to his forehead. A small jolt of current leapt from her fingertips to his head. He gave a small moan and jumped softly.

_What was that?_ Tohru asked curiously.

_I just thought I'd give him a dream of Uo-chan._ Jinn returned. Tohru smiled as Jinn relinquished control back to her and she transformed back to herself.

_I think jinn-san is growing to like my friends._ Jinn didn't answer but Tohru felt her grin in her head

Kureno taken care of Tohru headed unerringly for the cat house. She smiled as she saw the gaping hole in the side of the house. The window Kazuma provided Kyo with. Her smile slipped as she drew close enough to see through the plastic only to discover that Kyo was not on his futon. The mattress lay in front of the opening bathed in a pool of moonlight but Kyo was not there. Tohru moved to the door, her slender fingers reaching for the rough, wooden handle; it opened easily. She stepped into the shadows, gagging on the stench. The hut reeked of rotting flesh, as if something had been left to decay in the hot sun. The stench wafted around her, clinging to her nostrils. She tried covering her nose and breathing through her mouth but she could not fully block the odor.

There was movement in the shadows.

"Kyo…" She called. Something large shuffled in the back of the house and Tohru suddenly understood. Kyo must not have his bracelet on. Her heart twisted in sympathy. She knew he was ashamed of the form the curse had given him. She knew too he could easily shred her to pieces and all accidentally as he didn't have much control over his monstrous form. She lowered her hand and stepped forward. It was just what she had come to expect from Akito, it was probably another way the woman manipulated and attempted to control Kyo. Tohru's lips frowned in determination as she stepped closer to the retreating shadow. She would not fear Kyo… well, she resolved not to let her fear keep her from his side.

"Kyo-kun, I've come back… just like I promised." When there was no further movement Tohru stepped forward. She made out the hulking outline of Kyo's true form. "Kyo-kun," She whispered gently, reaching into the shadows, her arm trembled softly as her fingers found the warmth of his body, they traveled the length of his side, followed by the rest of her arms, finally wrapping around his neck in a tender embrace. He flinched but did not pull away.

"Kyo, my love." She pressed herself to his monster's head, resting against him. A purring, rumbling whimper erupted from his chest. "Shhhh." She lightly crooned, "I'm here now. I will not leave you again."

Kyo's entire body began to tremble uncontrollably. Tohru stroked his leathery hide, petting downward and scratching upward. He whimpered again.

"Kyo," she said firmly, raising his big head to her face so they were nose to nose. "I love you… but you stink. I'm going to get your bracelet from Akito." She pressed her cheek to his sliding it along his face as if to soften her words. "I will return shortly." Kyo's eyes widened and he launched himself in front of her, blocking the door.

"Akito… no go Tohru, no!" He growled in a chilling voice that was and wasn't quite Kyo's.

"Kyo, I will be fine." Her eyes softened as she reached for him again. Involuntarily he turned into her hand and she cupped his cheek, her voice was infinitely gentle as she spoke to him with all the love in her heart.

"I want to hold you and I cannot do what I want to do while you are in this form." Distracted by her touch he wasn't quick enough to stop her as she slipped behind him and out the opened door.

Kyo was worried for her but he couldn't make his muscles move and allow him to follow her. Years of hiding in this form and the accompanying psychological scarring were not going to disappear with a couple of sweet caresses from Tohru. Though they did begin to scab over.

Tohru moved swiftly and steadily as she crouched level with the bushes. The cat house was the outermost building in the Sohma compound. The compound was laid out like a small village. There was one main avenue down the center of the compound and a few short off shoots. She raced past Hatori and Ayame's quarters, situated side by side according to what Yuki had told her, she moved past Momiji's lonely little home. Yuki had told her that since calling his Juunishi together Momiji had lived alone, his father unwilling to follow him into the estate. Tohru kept in the shadows, avoiding the streetlamps illuminating the path.

Akito had her own building at the end of the main drive. It was above the audience hall where Tohru had been given permission to stay after witnessing Kyo's true form for the first time. She moved up onto the shadowed porch and attempted to open the wooden door. It was locked. She had expected this. She ran to the back of the building. Akito had a large wooden veranda perched about four feet off the ground on stilts. Tohru leapt up, pulling herself up onto the porch through the wooden balustrade. She hissed in pain as a splinter pierced her forefinger. It did nothing to slow her progress however. She climbed over the side and then walked soundlessly over to the paper door. It was locked as well.

_Oh well._ Jinn thought and Tohru grinned as she pulled a tiny pocketknife and sliced through the paper. She cut a hole large enough to crawl through and then did just that, tucking the knife into her belt next to her pins.

Akito's room was dark, Tohru could barely see.

_I will help with that._ Jinn told her. Tohru's eyes were suddenly able to see in the dark, it was as if night had become dusk, while it was not bright, everything was visible. Tohru began searching every drawer in Akito's parlor to no avail. With a frustrated hiss she moved to the door that adjoined Akito's sitting room with her bedroom. Soundlessly she pushed the door ajar just enough to slide her lithe body through the opening. She definitely did not want to confront Akito just now. She was surprised to find that Akito slept with a night-light. But she supposed someone with so much evil inside themselves had every reason to fear the dark.

Tohru searched silently and efficiently, her eyes were trained to seek out small details from her years as working housekeeping in the Sohma office building. She had to see and clean even in the most remote corners, dust light bulbs as needed, and wipe away the thin layers of dust that collected on the baseboards. Plus this was too important to her to miss.

After seeing him, touching him, her need to hold Kyo, in his human form had been ignited and a fierce desire to embrace her Kyo had taken over her entire being. She smiled triumphantly as, with jinn's aid, she broke the lock on a small box revealing the desired fruits of her search. She swiftly pocketed the bracelet. She turned to go but froze as the shadowy figure on the bed began stirring. Sweat broke out on he brow and heat traveled from her shoulders to her neck and back down as the fear of discovery flooded her being.

There was a soft gasp and a low whimper coming from the bed. Against her better judgment Tohru slowly padded to Akito's side. She eyed the sleeping God as one would eye a bug, with a slight sense of curiosity, mild revulsion and detachment. This was the heartless being responsible for so much pain and suffering. Tohru's mind swiftly ran over the list of all the evil things she knew Akito was responsible for.

Yuki and Kyo's self loathing, Hatori's broken heart, Rin's self torture, Haru's emotional anguish, Tohru had stepped between Akito on two separate occasions, once when Yuki had been frozen in his own silent world of terror at the high school, and once at the lake house when She leapt to protect Momiji from the Godling's wrath. She knew this adult had abused the three children of the zodiac, Hero, Kisa, and Momiji, Akito had blinded Hatori. But Akito's most grievous offenses were locking Kyo up and nearly beating Yuki to death. It was Akito that had driven Ayame to suicidal heights as he was forced to watch his brother lay dying. As the list wet on Tohru's rage blew higher. She ignored the faint voice of Jinn attempting to calm her. Of their own volition, her fingers went to the belt at her side. Sweat was rolling off of her as a war raged inside of Tohru. As the better Angel's of Tohru's nature warred with the demons loosed within her by Akito's cruelty and her own sense of helplessness, loneliness and fear she withdrew a single pin from her waist.

_It would only take the one, placed in just the right spot. The forbidden place. In mere minutes the Juunishi could be free and Akito would never hurt anyone again._

Akito, slumbering on, unaware of the very near and real threat to her mortality, cried out into the darkness. Tohru jumped. Her eyes alit on something sparkling in the night, illuminated by the faint glow of the night light plugged into the wall near Akito's head. Glistening like stars laid to rest on her pale cheeks, falling like rain sliding down a cars windshield, tears welled up from beneath Akito's lids. Tohru was shocked, rocked to her very core. Akito continued to weep softly in her sleep. Her body twitched. Her hands fisted at her sides next to her face. She whimpered softly. Her breaths came in short, swift, gasps.

Tohru's homicidal thoughts fled as her tender heart wrenched in bewildered sympathy.

_What sorrow could cause anyone to remain asleep and yet weep so profusely? Akito was obviously in the thrall of some night terror._

Without conscious thought, merely reacting to the triumphant call of her soul Tohru slid her hand through Akito's short dark hair, moving the sweat slicked, tear-dampened strands off her cheek. Jinn sent a small current of power through her hand and into Akito. Akito's breathing slowed, her whimpers ceased, her tears stopped their silent meanderings and her chest began rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Tohru exited Akito's quarters as silently as she had entered them.

In the dark of the God of the Sohma's room she had faced the darkness inside of herself and won. Barely. Ashamed of where she had allowed her thoughts to take her Tohru tried pushing them from her mind as she raced back to the cathouse. It was a side of herself she had never realized she possessed, it was a side of herself she was definitely not comfortable with. She resolved in that moment to never again allow such darkness to enter her thoughts. She would fight Askito. She would save her family. But she would not kill Akito. She wept with shame at her dark thoughts. As she wept in shame a light flared to life inside of her.

Time became frozen. She was suddenly back in the white place in her mind. From the horizon of the whiteness she heard steps. A figure blurred around the edges approached her, gradually coming into sharper focus.

_Jinn?_ Tohru thought in confusion. The figure became clearer until it was right in front of her. It was Jinn. She stood gazing solemnly at Tohru. Her eyes were full of wonder and… love?

_You faced your own darkness Tohru. I knew you were a good person even the day you subjugated me, I knew. But being a good person does not mean you will always be a good person. _Her voice shifted to a bitter tone as she looked away. _My first master was a good man, he gained my trust and my power and used it to destroy his piece of the world. As punishment for my part in his misdeeds I lost my own body, my spirit was trapped on this plane to forever be used as a servant to another. I learned that even good people have dark places inside them. As one master was traded for another and I was used to perform deeds some so dark I shudder in shame at my part in them I lost all faith in the race of men. But you have faced your darkest dreams and banished them. I am inside of you. I know your resolve._

_Th...th...thank-you…I guess_ Tohru thought, even in her mind turning crimson at such praise, _but really I…I'm nobody special, but mom she used to say that even if we sometimes have thoughts that are unkind, it's not the thoughts that define us, it's the actions we take and the choices we make, so really, I'm nothing special-_

_You are Tohru Honda. _Jinn thought-spoke fiercely to the young woman before her. _You are a good person. And so you will be the first to know my name. If you know my name you will wield the full power of the jinn. You will not be limited by numbers of wishes; your only limitation will be your own will and imagination. We will merge fully and my will and yours will be one. Is this… are you okay with this Tohru Honda?_

Tohru was overwhelmed by Jinn's regard and by her words. She was so honored by the trust Jinn was showing her. She reached out to grasp Jinn's hands in her own. Her eyes were shining radiantly.

_Jinn-san has been my friend. She has helped me save Ayame and Yuki and without her help I would never have been able to embrace my family. And so, I would love to be Jinn-sans friend for as long as she would like with or without her added powers._ Jinn smiled at Tohru sure in her decision.

_My name is Yuleena ab' Sulaman. It is right that one such as you would know the real me. _Jinn's form faded. In that moment Tohru understood that Jinn was completely sealed to her. There would be no more ongoing conversations between the two, no more switching control. Jinn was gone. They were now one. Tohru also sensed a well of power within her core that she innately understood was greater than anything the world had ever experienced. Yuleena had given up her individual identity to aid Tohru in freeing her family. Tohru understood now the depth of the sacrifice the jinn had for her cause. She was humbled by the conviction the jinn had shown in her. And for the first time she felt complete confidence in her plan. The Sohma curse would be broken and her boys would be free.

She halted before the cathouse. He awaited her, bathed in moonlight. Disbelief etched upon his monster's face. Tohru phased her body right through the plastic of his window. As she did so reality began to shimmer around them and the shack was transformed into a sumptuous room. Kyo gazed around in wonder and disbelief as Tohru reached for him. She drew his arm to her and slid the bracelet on him. There was a brown plume of smoke and a loud _Pouff!_ As he returned to his mans form.

Tohru gazed in awe as the Kyo of her memory was erased and a man stood in his place before her. The fact that he was nude barely registered in her mind as her eyes drank in the changes in him. Like a thirsty man wandering in the desert suddenly gifted with a well of cold pure water they drank each other with eyes too long dehydrated of the others presence.

Tohru stepped closer to him as she ran one hand through his shoulder length orange hair, her other hand traced the scar under his eye, compassion lighting her face as she dwelt upon the pain such a mark must have caused him. Her hands unwilling to leave off touching him inevitably traveled down his neck to his arms, tracing the muscles found there. Her eyes were wed with his as she watched him watching her.

Kyo hardly dared to believe what was happening; indeed as the room changed around them he felt momentary disappointment, as he was sure he was having a dream. Walls with smoothly carved and shadowed fillet ovulets replaced the drab walls of the cat house, Ionic pilasters were interspersed evenly along the room, distinctly bare of any fluting a white contrast to the shadows surrounding them. Yards of sheer, mustard colored fabric, interlaced with strands of gold draped from the ceiling, gathering in the corners to fall in exotic fabric waterfalls, they were contrasted with a similar material in a rich violet hue with silver threads woven throughout. The fabric billowed from the ceiling gathering in the center of the room creating a tent-like effect around the rooms focal point which was where his futon had been. It had been replaced by a massive round bed covered in Violet sheets of silk and a thick and velvet soft Golden comforter with Jade embroidery in geometric designs upon the surface. Within the wall sconces on torches of gold red-gold flames illuminated the room. Behind Tohru, where his plastic covered window had been, a window shaped like a bell with golden tracery all around it overlooked a sky as endless as existence, glowing sapphire and draped in a canopy of stars. Where the sky met the horizon dunes of sand peaked and ell like delicate wind swept embroidery sewn painstakingly onto the landscape by a deity in love with beauty.

The scenery and setting alone would have taken his breath away if Tohru had not stolen it first. He took note of her eyes, shining blue and flashing gold, her skin, vibrant and healthy though gaunt around her face. He noted her leanness even as he noted the gentle swell of her breasts and the perky upswept curve of her hips in those tiny black shorts. Her arms dipped and swelled with graceful muscles she had not possessed a year ago. Her stomach was lightly ridged, still maintaining the delicate softness of feminine beauty while hinting at the corded steel muscles beneath. His eyes returned to her face as chills swept through him as she stroked him, much the way she would stroke a cat. Kyo was practically purring.

_If this is a dream I hope I never wake up._ He found himself thinking. Tohru lifted the hand she had slid the bracelet on. His breath caught on a gasp as desire slammed into him when she pressed her lips into his wrist. She nipped lightly before withdrawing. He looked into her eyes as she met and held his gaze. Her sapphire orbs were dark with desire. He knew his own red-eyed gaze held a similar golden glow as his own passion rose to meet hers. She gently pressed him backwards and he found himself falling to be embraced by cool silken sheets. The coolness of the sheets was a stark contrast to the heat of his body. Tohru slid herself into the bed next to him. Their eyes met and held before Tohru rolled atop him, pressing the length of her body onto his. Everything was touching, torsos, chests, stomachs, hips, and legs. Kyo knew it had to be a dream because being held like this was impossible for one cursed by the Zodiac.

But it was indeed the sweetest dream he had ever had.

_If I die now I would die happily in this dream where I can lie as a man with Tohru and hold her as my woman._

Since it could be nothing other than a dream, Kyo released his last restraint and fell into the fantasy with uninhibited abandon.

Tohru lay atop Kyo her entire body lighting up with the sensations of a woman newly awakened to passion and she stared in contentment into Kyo's glowing eyes. She would have remained that way happily enjoying the sweet sensations that were enveloping her entire body as she pressed her body to Kyo's but Kyo's hand snaked up into her hair and brought her down to his mouth.

There was nothing gentle in this kiss. It was nothing like the tender and soft ministrations of Yuki. Yuki was the stars, he was moonlight on vanilla washing her in a glowing ethereal and otherworldly radiance that stole her breath and gave it back again. Kyo's passion was sunlight and volcanos. It was hot, and fierce, and explosive in its heat and intensity. As Kyo claimed her lips with his own the world changed once more and Tohru knew she would never leave his side again


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 Sunlight and Volcano's**

Kyo had never had a woman. He felt the same urges as most males his age, however his own sense of self-loathing, his own belief in his innate unworthiness, coupled with the zodiac curse had kept him from ever even attempting to form any kind of a bond with a female. The only girl he had ever desired was with him in the most realistic dream he had ever had. He was not about to let such a wonder go unexplored. Until the second he awoke he would savor this dream with all the pent up ardor he possessed.

His hand snaked up into her hair. He could already feel himself rock hard with desire as he lay his other hand on her bottom, grinding her pelvic region into his groin, moaning with lust, raw, primal, animalistic as he pulled her mouth to his to taste her. She moaned into his mouth as his covered hers. He sucked on her lower lip for a brief second, nipping it and when she gasped in surprise at the light sting he thrust his tongue into her passion sweet mouth. He did not taste, no mere drink was this, Kyo devoured and consumed her flavor. She was sweet and nutty, his tongue filled her mouth, it stroked the top of her mouth and slid alongside her own and he took her essence into him, drawing his tongue back into his mouth with slow deliberation. His hands were everywhere as he gave her a mere second to inhale before inserting his tongue again.

His large hands, fingers splayed stroked her arms, shoulders, then down to her waist, they slid beneath the black tank top she wore to touch the bare skin beneath the fabric. He growled deeply, a menacing sound that only served to further enflame Tohru as she squirmed against him. She began pulling at his shirt with trembling hands, temporarily gone violent in their passion. He pulled from her only long enough to allow her to take his shirt off. His eyes grew drunk on the sight of her kiss swollen lips. He grasped her top at the seam, and tore the threads apart discarding the top as one would a rag. Her lilac bra cupped the treasure he sought and he drew in a shuddering breath but before he could remove the offensive material from her she shoved his back into the mattress, rocking atop him, he groaned aloud as he fought to keep himself from coming- to end this dream so soon- he couldn't bear to think about it, he resolved that he would not allow himself to climax until he was connected to Tohru, and then he would cling to her with everything he had, mayhaps pulling her from this dream world into his bitterly dark and lonely reality.

His brown nipples were ridges as Tohru dove toward him, taking his mouth with hers. Kyo rolled her onto her back, rocking his hips against her as she thrust her tongue into his mouth. Shamelessly he sucked on her as he would have sucked on an exotic chocolate. His throat purred, a rumbling sound into her mouth as he sought to imbibe all that she had to offer. Unable to stop himself he drug his fingernails down her side to her waist, grasping her buttocks and grinding himself against her. She released his mouth shrieking her pleasure.

Kyo took the opportunity to taste her neck. Growling he dragged his upper teeth to her jugular where he nipped lightly then sucked softly.

"Oh, God, Kyo!" She gasped in wonder. Kyo felt a grin split across his face as he licked her throat down to the valley between her small but perfect breasts. He placed his mouth atop her bra and suckled over the spot where her nipple should be. She moaned his name again, tunneling her fingers through his hair pressing his face against her chest. With a muted roar Kyo reached around Tohru's back and spent a heart pounding few seconds unfastening her bra. Then it was gone and he feasted upon her.

Every ounce of his skin burned with passions fire. Tohru's hands massaged his scalp as he lovingly laved first one pebble hard nipple then the other with his hot mouth. He suckled like a starving babe, delighting in the little mewling whimpers Tohru managed to gasp out between breaths. He nuzzled the underside of one breast as he gently rolled the nipple of the other between his thumb and forefinger. He trailed kisses along the underside of her small moons before raining a fiery path down to her navel.

He kissed in rapid succession around the periphery of her indentation before delving into her small belly button with his tongue. She tasted of salt and sweat. Kyo couldn't get enough and he lapped at her as if she were a bowl of cream. Her body began to spasm beneath him and her legs rose to wrap him tightly to her. Incoherent with rapture Tohru cried his name, a one word ballad of passion and release as she orgasmed beneath him. As she rocked beneath him he continued his pleasurable feast upon her navel, sucking the skin above her indent until it turned dusky. Moments later her legs relaxed and Kyo withdrew, nowhere close to being finished.

Kyo pulled her shorts from her with no finesse, her underwear followed until she was naked before him. She eyed him with wide dewy eyes, her arms raised as if to draw him back to her. He leapt atop her, pinning her arms to the bed, his full length pressing into her his rod jutting against her woman's mound, straining through the fabric of his shorts. His eyes met hers and he stayed like that for what seemed an eternity. His every inch of skin was dining upon the luxurious and erotic feel of her touching all of him. He could feel each cell dance in joyous celebration and he rubbed himself deliciously against her, his eyes never leaving hers. He grinned as her eyes closed and her back arched upward. He dragged his face down the length of her body, reveling in the experience of every part of her petting and stroking his face. His head stopped between her thighs and Kyo spread her vaginal lips apart, sliding one long finger into her glistening sheathe.

She was so wet!

He groaned again before he moved his face closer to her center. He breathed deeply, inhaling her woman's scent. The animal spirit within him demanded he claim her immediately, but the man spirit urged him to taste of her.

Kyo drank her, sucking hungrily at her wet entrance, drinking her arousal and stimulating her flesh. He licked her, rubbing her soft flesh with his tongue, finding the spot that drove her crazy and there he consumed and licked and kissed until his mouth was rewarded with a gentle gush of fresh liquid and her muscles spasmed around his finger. Kyo rose to survey Tohru. Her nipples were hard and distended, strands of brown hair clung to her sweat slick neck, her eyes were heavy lidded with satiated passion. She was ready for him.

Kyo positioned himself to claim her when a growl from the bed stopped him. His amber-eyed gaze shot to Tohru's. Her eyes were wide and fiery. She pulled herself up, her hands going to Kyo's shorts. The second she touched them they disappeared and Kyo's erect member sprang up, rigid with desire. Kyo gasped as her soft fingers wrapped around his shaft and he almost died as she dragged her tongue around the head before she suckled it gently.

Kyo knew if he allowed her to continue he would bust right there and he resolved yet again that he would be inside her when he came. With a harsh cry of negation he grabbed the back of Tohru's hair, jerking back, she gazed up at him with dark eyes. HE shook his head and she released his penis to slide her hands up his body. Kyo pressed his lips to hers as they kissed naked skin to naked skin. Nothing lay between them and Kyo reveled in that feeling. Tohru's skin was hot as Kyo stroked her entire body.

Growling Kyo whirled her around in his arms until his manroot pressed against her buttocks. Tohru's scent of passion filled his nose, his mind, blinding him to all but the lust raging inside him. Kyo growled biting the back of her neck and suckling. She screamed in passion arching her breasts upward into his waiting hands. Kyo massaged them roughly, bearing down atop Tohru. She was facedown on the mattress, her rounded bottom arched up, her feminine mound, glistening visibly with the evidence of her desire. Kyo guided the head of his penis to her wet opening. He rubbed her clit with the head of his cock before spreading her labia and entering her in one swift stroke. Her feminine wetness seemed to suck him into her and he gasped at the wet heat surrounding him. Tohru gasped arching backwards as Kyo filled her. Kyo leaned forward, his shaft deeply embedded into her heat and wrapping her hair around his fist he kissed her neck. She rose up, turned her head and desperately sought to taste him. Kyo answered her need by calling her name and pressing a hungry kiss to the corner of her mouth. Then they were both lost to the sensations.

Kyo drove his shaft into Tohru again and again. Tohru was crying out in rapture arching hungrily against him meeting him stroke for stroke with her own body. Suddenly her rhythm faltered and she screamed his name. In that instant as her muscles began spasming around his member Kyo came inside of her, spewing his manseed deep into her womb. He was barely aware of what he was saying as he pounded into her.

"I love you, I love you, I love you!" He cried as at last, his body sated he collapsed atop her.

Tohru had never known such rapture. She felt as if she had just been made love to by a bolt of lightning. He was still inside her as he collapsed. Her body shivered and she gasped as she felt herself come again. Her body twitched against him as she rode the waves of pleasure he caused within her. The tingles relieved the hot achy itch that was spread throughout her entire body. She felt the release in her chest, arms, legs and stomach, even her neck and head.

_Four times!_

Kyo had brought her to bliss four times. She never wanted this moment to end. And she smiled to herself. Time had no meaning. She had the power. She could make this moment last as long as she wanted to. So she slept, wrapped in the arms of the zodiacs most cursed member she slept.

Kyo, having let go of all inhibitions, clutched her body tightly to his, unwilling to release her, fearing that if he did she would disappear. He was realizing, gradually, that this was not a dream, but he was still unwilling to trust the reality of what had just transpired.

_Good spirits, God, if there is anything or anyone that hears and answers prayers here me now. If this is all a dream, just an illusion, let me never wake up. If this is not reality then please, leave here, in this dream for all eternity. If life is other than this, then let me be done with it. MY life is here, always with her. All else is ash. Leave me to her until the end._

Kyo held tight to the slumbering girl in his arms his body still joined with her and for the first time in his tormented life he felt peace in his soul.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 Fire in the night**

Tohru stirred dreamily, relishing the feeling of body heat and cool silk on her skin. Her eyes opened drowsily. She could feel Kyo pressed up against her back. She rolled to face him, his back had been pressed to hers so she now lay spooning his body with hers. His once tan skin was a pale yellow white. She frowned. She definitely preferred Kyo with a full body tan. With a wicked grin she placed a kiss between his shoulder blades, sliding her arm beneath his, clutching him against her. Where she kissed him, spreading outward, his skin became a dusky golden color.

She had returned his healthy golden glow to him. Kyo sighed happily, blissfully content to bask in the gentle affections of the only girl who had ever moved him. His arm reached behind him to caress her. Tohru leaned up and kissed him on his neck, delighting in his earthy, salty flavor.

"Awake kitty kitty, we must be away from your prison." Kyo rolled over to face her, a frown on his face.

"Don't call me that, please." His voice was low and serious. Tohru's playful smile dimmed.

"I- I'm sorry, Kyo-kun- I didn't mean to-"

"No!" Kyo hissed, softening his tone with a smile, "It's not that, it's just that after hearing you call my name… the way you did," he grinned at her, "I only want to hear that from you when you call me." His smile became luminous as he leaned in close, rubbing his face against her nose. "I love you Tohru. Forever." Tohru's eyes grew glazed with tears; she drew in a gasping breath.

"I love you too Kyo!" She pulled him to her. He went without complaint. She captured his mouth to hers, pressing her lips to his with surprising ardor. Kyo reached up to stroke her back and would have become more engaged had Tohru not pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Kyo asked his voice croaking hoarsely with desire. Tohru rose up from the bed her eyes never leaving his as she held the mustard-gold sheet to her breasts.

"Nothing is wrong, but I can not hold us here in this dream forever. We must go." Kyo sighed his eyes leaving hers. Tohru took his silence as acquiescence and began to dress. In moments she had on her black shorts and tank top. It had been ripped during their lovemaking but with all the power of the jinn at her disposal it was nothing to repair the seam. As she dressed the illusion of a desert paradise faded and Kyo found himself returned to the cat house. He was confused.

"Tohru, how did you… did you do that?" Tohru looked at Kyo admiring the rippling muscles of his body.

"Yes Kyo-kun. I did that. That is not all I did. I suspended time for us. It has only been a couple moments since I came to you with the bracelet." Kyo's head swam in confusion as he attempted to make sense of what he had just seen, and what she had just said.

"How did you-" He began but Tohru was at his side, pressing a finger to his lips, shaking her head.

"There will be time to catch up later, now you must get dressed." She bent down to retrieve his shirt, giving him a moment to find and don his khaki's. That done, he put on the black tank top Tohru handed to him.

"Tohru," he began, "I can't leave. I made a promise." She arched a brown brow at him, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Kyo was slightly startled to see such an adult and… well, confident expression on Tohru's face.

"And what of the promise your body made to mine? What of your declaration of love?" She headed to the door of the cat house, throwing it open. A warm breeze blew into the small hut carrying the scents of summer with it. Kyo followed her to the door. His breath hitched as she stood bathed in the silvery moonlight, the stars the perfect backdrop for her delicate face. Just looking at her took his breath away. He could hardly believe that she was with him. Denying her would be the hardest thing he would ever be required to do, but his honor as a man demanded he resist the urge to sweep her up and go anywhere in the world with her.

"I love you Tohru, I will love you till I die, but I will not break my vow." She frowned at Kyo, actually frowned at him. He was again startled at this new side of Tohru. They'd grown up together, frowns and anger- they just didn't fit with the Tohru of his past.

"I don't want your death Kyo. Death would be easy." She snapped at him, her voice softened however, as she took his hand in hers, stroking his thumb with her forefinger. "I would much rather you live. Live for me, for us, for our love. As for your promise," she smirked, her eyes lighting with a golden glow Kyo would have thought on anyone but Tohru looked like an almost vicious pleasure, "I will break it for you. You cannot stay in the cathouse, if the cathouse is lost."

"Lost? Tohru what are you talking about?"

"I once told you fire burns down walls too high, remember Kyo?" She asked. A chill traveled his spine.

"Tohru, what are you-" He began but he gasped as her eyes flashed red for a brief second and a flame shot from her hand to the corner of the cat house. He gasped at how quickly the entire building caught fire.

"C'mon Kyo!" She whispered grasping his hand in her own. On feet carried on wings of rapture they sped, she dragged him behind her and they raced for the outer wall.

"Tohru!" Kyo called out concern in his voice, "we can't just run! We have to warn the others, that fire will grow out of control!" Tohru stopped running to look back at Kyo, her expression unreadable.

"That fire was set with jinn magic, _my_ magic. That fire will consume every scrap of cloth and wood of that cursed house, no more no less. No cat will ever be held there again. Our family is safe." Kyo was somewhat mollified and he allowed her to drag him the rest of the way. He was a little in awe of her new abilities and regarded her with wonder.

"Tohru we really need to talk." He managed to gasp out before she pulled him behind a bush. There was a shout and lights all over the Honke began coming on. Tohru's eyes hungrily drank in the sight of her Juunishi. Hatori was the first to spring into action, his cell phone was in his hand even as he turned the garden hose on and began spraying the flames. Tohru knew the flames wouldn't die until not a single scrap of kindling was left of the cathouse. She was just as sure also that no member of the Juunishi would be harmed by the flames. Ayame came out right after Hatori, his feet bare, adorned in a Victorian style white dressing gown. Tohru had to stifle a giggle as Ayame took one look at the flames stretching up to the heavens, placed his hands on his knees and began laughing deep belly laughs. Momiji trailed over to his side a beaming grin on his face; Haru and Rin had materialized from the wood behind the outbuildings like shadows.

Momiji threw his hands into the air and began laughing and dancing in circles. Tohru could hear the joyous song he sang from where she sat. A curl of contentment untwined in her chest. She couldn't wait to hold little Momiji in her arms again.

"Tohru's back, Tohru's back, she took the rat she took the cat, Tohru's back with the hots for both my cuuuuzins!"

"Why are they laughing! For all they know I could be a crispy critter in there!" Tohru's smile dimmed a little as she took in Kyo's indignant expression. His eyes glimmered with a hurt she knew he would never put words to.

"They are happy because you are free." She took his face in her hands and turned him to face her. "They know I have come for you. Your family knows you are not in that fire." Kyo pulled out of her hand to glare angrily at the ground.

"Whatever." He mumbled.

_Oh Kyo, what scars are you hiding from me that I cannot heal?_

Tohru shoved him to the ground, lying on top of him.

"I love you Kyo Sohma." She kissed him then, hoping to replace the anger and the hurt with something warm, with something stronger, with love and passion. Kyo responded swiftly to her ardor. He drank from her lips as if he would never be quenched and she yielded to him everything she had. Suddenly footsteps ground pebbles perilously close to their hiding spot. They both froze.

"Did someone check on Akito?" Kureno's voice cried.

"She's fine! She's right here!" Shigure called from the direction of Akito's house.

Kureno's footsteps pelted off into the distance. As they faded Tohru turned her eyes to Kyo to find him staring at her. She stared back, unable to look away.

"You're something amazing, you know that?" Kyo whispered to her, bringing one hand up and pushing a long strand of hair behind her ear. Tohru smiled at him lovingly, leaning into his hand, pressing herself to him.

"If I am anything special or amazing, it is because Kyo-kun and Yuki-kun have made me into something amazing. Without Kyo, I would be a nobody. You create all the greatness in me. You inspire me to greatness… your kindness and love, it has always helped me to be strong when inside I know I am weak." Kyo's eyes held hers for a long time.

"You're so weird." He smiled then when she turned cherry red. She was blushing so brightly he could feel the heat coming off of her skin. He leaned forward kissing her swiftly and then falling back. "Let's go." He said standing up.

Tohru was grinning in the darkness as she and Kyo, side by side, took a running leap up the wall, grasping the top and pulling themselves up and over. As they dropped to the ground on the other side, Kyo and Tohru were both gasping for air. Tohru found him gazing at her with a new respect. She threw back her head and laughed aloud.

She was so full of joy.

Golden beams of light flooded the darkness, blinding her momentarily, the soft hum of a motor growled angrily in the night as headlights came on and a car pulled up to their side. She stood offering an arm to a still panting Kyo.

"Here," she panted, "our ride's here, let's go home." Kyo took her hand, allowing her to pull him up. Together they hopped into the car and drove away from the red-orange flames licking the sky.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 Love triangle**

"Honda San!" Yuki cried out as she entered the house. Tohru thought nothing of flinging her body into his arms and kissing Yuki as Arisa, Saki, and Kyo trailed behind her. She didn't see the crushing look of agony and disbelief painting Kyo's face with all the drama of a broken heart. In Tohru's mind she had done nothing wrong, she loved both Kyo and Yuki. She had never been dishonest in her motivations; she didn't understand that either boy might object to the other taking certain liberties with her person.

In actuality Tohru was giddy with happiness. She was a woman now and she had both the men she loved at her side. She was feeling invincible. With her arms around Yuki's neck and her eyes gazing adoringly into his she felt her smile stretch from ear to ear.

"Oh Yuki-kun!" She breathed, "it was magnificent. The light from the flames lit up the sky like a false dawn! And Kyo was so surprised to see me!" She turned to Kyo and for the first time she sensed something was wrong. His face bore a look of distress and she realized he was in pain. Her arms fell from Yuki as she rushed to Kyo. She reached for him only to have him smack her arms away. She gasped as he looked at her and she saw the betrayal burning in his eyes.

"K-K-Kyo-kun?" She whispered questioningly.

"Look, if you want to be with that damn rat then… I understand!" He fell to his knees his face falling into his hands. "He can give you everything you need… far better than I ever could." His voice trailed off to a whisper. He refused to look up. Tohru turned her panicked gaze to Yuki his face was strangely impassive. She realized that she would get no help from him.

"Kyo, please, what's wrong? Please Kyo," she whimpered, her voice catching as the last of the euphoria left her and the familiar feeling of panic settled in her stomach. She realized that Hana and Uo had discreetly disappeared leaving it to her to fix whatever was wrong. "Kyo, why are you hurting?" Her arms reached around him and she held him tightly, he tried shaking her off but she clung to him. "I just got you back, I will never let you go again! Tell me what is wrong!"

"Idiot I love you!" Kyo shouted; he glared angrily at her, his eyes sparkling with tears.

"Then why are you upset? What is wrong with you?" Tohru shouted through her own tears.

"Because I can't play these games!" Kyo challenged, "either you love him or you love me! I will be happy for you Tohru, I really will, but…" He gulped and inhaled raggedly before continuing, "but I need to know- who do you want to be with?" Tohru read a guarded hope in his eyes. She turned to look at Yuki who was also eyeing her with the same hope. Tohru looked away to gather her thoughts, the entire time she never relinquished her hold on Kyo. She was sure if she let him go he would run away from her and she knew that she could never bear it.

Being abandoned.

Again.

"I love Kyo kun." She began guardedly. "For as long as I can remember I have loved him. I have loved him with all that I am in the most hidden secret places of my heart. When mom died I was alone. I was not wanted and… not needed. I was alone in this world. I took dinner alone and I slept in a tent alone and the world kept on moving forward but I was still, and so alone. Then Kyo came, and Yuki too. I suddenly had a family. You were all so in need of me. I found home in your love. But I love Yuki too! Yuki watches out for me. He keeps me safe from the loneliness. Kyo gives me warmth and Yuki gives me sanctuary. I cannot choose because I love you both. I know it's different, I understand that I am being greedy, that what I want is more than I have a right to ask." Her chin came up and she stood, her eyes locking with first Kyo's, then Yuki's, her hands went to her hips and she spread her legs defiantly.

"But I love Yuki! I love Kyo! I want the three of us to always be together. I want to laugh with you both! I want to touch you both! I want us all to live together and eat together and make love together! I want us all to stay together always! Because I will not live in a world without Yuki-kun! I will not live in a world without Kyo-kun! Yuki and Kyo are my everything, and so I will not choose!" Her chest was heaving with defiant ire as she awaited the boy's response. Yuki flopped to the floor and began laughing softly. Kyo shot an irate glare at the other boy, he picked up a shoe and pitched it at Yuki who dodged it easily.

"Kuso Nezumi! What's so damn funny!" He snapped. Yuki raised shining eyes to Kyo.

"Baka Neko," he laughed, "this is all your fault!" Kyo leapt to his feet, his hands curling into fists.

"How is this my fault!" He shouted. Yuki just looked up at Kyo from his position on the floor.

"You're the one who told her it was okay for her to complain, you told her to stand up for herself and ask for what she wants. Well she's not only asking, she's demanding. She wants both of us." Kyo could only gape at Yuki's mocking smile.

"And you're okay with this- with her- with both of us!" Kyo couldn't seem to close his mouth. Yuki's smile shrank into a lazy mocking grin, the one he wore every time he kicked Kyo's ass.

"I love Tohru. I want to be with her no matter what. Furthermore, I know she loves me too." Yuki's eyes dropped and his voice became more introspective. "One's such as us are seldom offered love like hers. If Tohru says she loves both of us, I know her heart is big enough that it's true." His eyes returned to Kyo, in them Kyo read a challenge, "but I will nurture the love she has for me. One day she will love me more, until then, I will bask in her love and warmth for as long as I have breath in me." Kyo looked to Tohru who still eyed him with fire and hope. He sighed.

"No one can love the cat. I have always been the outcast, I have always lost to that damn rat!" His arm shot out and he pulled Tohru into his embrace, his lips mere inches from her cheek as he gazed into her eyes. His own orbs were the color of lava flowing in rivers beneath the earth, the color of Kyo's passion. "But this time it will be different. I have tasted paradise in your arms sweet Tohru, there is no way I'm going to lose!" He sealed his vow with a fervent kiss. Tohru's body sagged against him with relief. She pulled away moments later to gaze adoringly into the cat's eyes.

"I love you Kyo kun, never doubt it!" Kyo smiled softly at her. So what if she loved that damn rat, she loved him too, needed him. No one had ever needed him before.

_I will not live in a world without Kyo kun!_

Kyo never imagined he could be loved that much. And after all, the rat wasn't all bad. Kyo looked at him. He seemed healthy. He was the only member of the family brave enough to defy Akito and come out to see him.

"Kuso Nezumi, I guess Akito didn't find out about your last visit, you look well." Yuki looked away, the shadow of shame burning in his eyes. He said nothing. Kyo looked to Tohru questioningly. Tohru bit her lip looking from Kyo to Yuki. She laid a gentle hand on Yuki's shoulder, leaning into him.

"Akito almost killed Yuki, Kyo. She beat him within an inch of death." Kyo's face went white.

"Yuki…" He couldn't bring himself to say he was sorry aloud. Yuki nodded, reading the apology in the cat's eyes.

"Were it not for Tohru you would be awaiting my successor to the spirit of the rat. Akito broke my ribs and pierced my lungs with the bone. She left me to die in a pool of my own blood all night. Hatori did what he could but they all thought I would die. Ayame tried to take his own life by overdosing on narcotics." There was a note of wonder in Yuki's voice. "I will never understand why he wanted to die with me."

"Because Ayame has always wanted to regain the connection that could have been with Yuki-kun. With you gone he could never make it up to Yuki for abandoning him that one time. Ayame-san loves Yuki-kun. He will never abandon him again. Ayame will follow you even to death to show you his love." Tohru read something in Yuki's eyes then, it was like a light turning on, a wall crumbling down. Yuki gasped aloud, his hands gripping his chest. He fell to his knees as Tohru's words washed over him in icy waves.

"Kuso Nezumi!" Kyo gasped in concern as Yuki fell to the floor.

"Yuki!" Tohru cried falling to his side her hands on his shoulders. Yuki couldn't breathe, he felt his bronchial tubes swelling and he gasped for air. His heart. It was Huuuurting! Tears gushed from his eyes and he gasped a strangled sound. When the first one came he couldn't seem to stop. Kyo's eyes shot to Tohru's in panic as he too fell to his knees next to his cousin. She smiled at Kyo through her own tears. Kyo had to struggle to fight back his own as the wrenching sobs were torn from the rat-boy's chest. They were low, guttural, primal, and spirit rending. Kyo well knew them for they were the same sounds he had made when his mother died. They were the same sounds his soul made when he allowed Akito to lock him up, they were the same sounds his heart made when he awoke to the knowledge that Tohru was gone. In that moment he envied Yuki's ability to let go, to release his pain. Kyo felt in that moment that he would never release his own and it would suffocate all light within him until he became the dark monster the family took him for. He knew for a surety, that one day his darkness could even put out the light Tohru shined upon him with her love.

Yuki was trapped in swirling sensations of grief and relief and such a bright and forgiving hope. His parents had sold him to Akito. His brother had abandoned him to abuse and torture by an insane god. He knew for certain that he was utterly alone in this world. He could depend on no one until Tohru came, and then there was only she who could be counted upon to care for his heart.

But with Tohru's explanation of his brother's inconceivable act of life it was as if everything wrong between them was made small by comparison to his brother's final act of love. Yuki understood then what he could never have accepted before. Ayame loved him. And with that acceptance came the understanding that he, Yuki Sohma, loved Ayame. They were brothers and though Ayame was insane and even scary in his conceit at times, Yuki understood he would never have to be alone in the world again.

The understanding, the grief of so much wasted time, the relief of not being alone and having his brothers love and the hope of a brighter future was too powerful all at once for him to process. So he struggled for breath and wept. Tohru wrapped an arm around his shoulders, a warmth enveloped him, he recognized it as her essence combining with his. His raspy breaths eased and he gained control as she soothed his soul with her warmth. Yuki also recognized another warmth mingling with his own; it was very different than Tohru's but not unpleasant. It was strength and heat, and pride, and a passionate and zesty glory in life. It was not unlike- his lavender eyes shot to Kyo's. Kyo had his hand on the rat's shoulder, his orange eyes wide as he felt Yuki's relief and despair wash over him. There was a saying about walking a mile in someone else's shoes. Tohru was doing something, a mind meld or something and he felt himself struggling to give the rat support as he felt the boys despair ebb and flow in his soul.

As Kyo experienced the totality of Yuki's spirit meshing with his own, as he felt his own will lift up to offer support to the boy he had so long considered his enemy, he understood at last that Yuki had not lived the pampered favored life he had always thought he had. In a way Yuki's pain was a mirror to his own. In that moment Kyo was forced to release the hate he had held onto for his entire life. He understood that he would never hate the rat again. The two boys looked into each others eyes and they felt something akin to heaven as the chains of hatred that had so long clasped their souls in heavy shadows rusted, broke and lifted from them. It was a special magic born of love and healing, perhaps even the greatest and only true power on the whole of the planet. It was the magic of connection one human to another and the power of forgiveness.

Tohru had done this. The two boys smiled at each other and as one turned to Tohru and wrapped her in their warm and loving embrace. It was such an embrace that they could not help but half hold onto each other. This they did, and there was no awkwardness in it, no competitive spirit to vie for the arms of the woman they both loved. It was a priceless moment in which the three basked in the glow of the gift provided to them by a very special girl. By the woman they both loved. Tohru took the shattered and broken remnants of their empty dreams and sundered souls and pieced them back together with love. Unconditional and all encompassing. It was a moment Kyo, and Yuki, and Tohru would never forget.


End file.
